KLIMEK Movies Is Magic (Anticipate) cd 16.98
Washed out, hazy, dreamy, shimmery, warm, droney, otherworldly, gauzy, ethereal, all perfectly describe a microgenre we've come to love, called simply Pop Ambient. A techno subgenre, that essentially removed the beats from electronic music, leaving just the shadows, the outlines, the colors, loosed from the stricture of rhythm (for the most part), those colors and moods and textures are free to seep and bleed and drift and vaporize, into whirring soft focus streaks of blurred, almost new age-y ambience. A sound that various other music makers have definitely referenced, Jeck, Tim Hecker, the Fun Years, anyone creating haunting drone music or textured minimalism, will no doubt find themselves drifting into a certain sort of pop ambience. But it seems, that pop ambience has a certain warmth, not quite sunshine-y, but definitely a glow, the imbues the majority of that music with a dreamlike luminescence. While the other folks traffic in something much darker, and while their sound may touch on pop ambience, it remains in the realm of the black, the grey, the sonic underworld.
Weirdly enough, we do find ourselves wondering about a pop ambience that was, well, less glowing, more ominous, something darker and more sinister, that could somehow remain ambient pop, without slipping into something else, into dronemusic, or some sort of minimal noisemusic. Strange that it would come from Klimek, who is responsible for some of the dreamiest prettiest pop ambient music we've heard, but Movies Is Magic, Klimek's 'film music' record, is in fact that rare beast, a gorgeous slab of pop ambience, that seethes with tension and emotion and drama, sure it shimmers and glistens, but it also creeps and hums ominously, drones are layered and pulled taut, melodies are minor key and are wrapped around looped cycling strings, field recordings, voices, organic instruments, all woven into Klimek's constantly mutating noir soundscape.
Gorgeous and haunting, these tracks evoke everyone from Bohren, to Autechre, Philip Jeck to Pole, Barry Adamson to Oval, this record would be a perfect fit for Kompakt if it weren't so dark, or Chain Reaction if there were some beats, instead, it exists in some strange rain soaked constant midnight nether region, the pop dialed way back, as is the ambience, this is anything but placid, or calm, this music is alive, crackling with dark energy, tense, and intense, very evocative and textural and moody. The songs are quite varied, but work perfectly together as a whole. Dark moaning horns surface here and there, Bernard Herrmann strings everywhere, the occasional skittery snare, rubbery bass, everything woven and smeared and layered, woozy and dreamlike, a few of the tracks sound all rural, a bit Morricone-ish and Western, subtly twangy with reverbed harmonica, others drift into flute flecked almost Kitaro sounding new age-y flutter, beneath a murmur of rainfall, disembodied reverbed voices, murky percussion, and hazy looped melodies.
Here and there, the record does get all dubby, with little synth stabs, and careening not-quite beats, all wrapped in whir, and exuding a serious sonic import, sometimes sounding almost sinister, but just as often pulling back into something much more melodic and mysterious, straddling the line between lush drift and blackened beauty.
Movies Is Magic is our new late night chill out drift off soundtrack, and should certainly appeal to folks who like us maybe always fantasized about a little darkness in their ambient drift. And folks into dark drone music, black ambience, and soundtrack music, might find this the perfect gateway to the fuzzy dreamy drifty world of pop ambience.
MPEG Stream: "Abyss of Anxiety (Unfolding the Magic)"
MPEG Stream: "Exposed to Life In It's Brutal Meaninglessness"
MPEG Stream: "Exploding Unbearable Desires"
MPEG Stream: "Tears of Happiness (Dismissed Into Mundanity)"

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A STORM OF LIGHT Forgive Us Our Trespasses (Neurot) cd 14.98
Maybe some of you remember the awesome Primitive North split lp between Nadja and A Storm Of Light, the newish project of Josh Graham (Red Sparrows, Blood And Time, Neurosis visuals dude). Some of us neglected to take note of A Storm Of Light's debut, which we're now kicking ourselves over, because the band's latest, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, is certainly satisfying our sweet tooth for epic, metallic post rock grandiosity with a healthy dose of DOOM. Like Neurosis, ASoL takes things into sprawling psychedelic territory, but Graham's clear and powerful vocals may actually be enough for this to appeal to the non-metalheads as well. The sound here is absolutely HUGE, and the awesome/ridiculous artwork, with its collection of discarded objects, animals, and massive landforms, should give you a pretty good indication of the surreal, dreamlike qualities represented on this disc. It's pretty refreshing hearing a band bring such crushingly heavy sounds into a realm that is also very tuneful, catchy, and triumphant. Thematically, the album seems to revolve around some sort of post-industrial collapse - you know, like the one just around the corner - perfectly represented on the opening track, which features a chilling spoken word piece by Lydia Lunch accompanied by a... banjo? Yep, the "almost sea shanty-ish" arrangements we described on Primitive North prevail here as well, not that you'll be thinking of pirates (or maybe you will), it's just that the songs take on a massive, back and forth sort of sway like they are being controlled by the elements.
So yeah, maybe it took us a while to take note of these guys, but we're sure glad we did. Better late than never.
MPEG Stream: "Amber Waves Of Gray"
MPEG Stream: "Tempest"
MPEG Stream: "The Light In Their Eyes"

A STORM OF LIGHT Forgive Us Our Trespasses (Neurot) lp 22.00
Maybe some of you remember the awesome Primitive North split lp between Nadja and A Storm Of Light, the newish project of Josh Graham (Red Sparrows, Blood And Time, Neurosis visuals dude). Some of us neglected to take note of A Storm Of Light's debut, which we're now kicking ourselves over, because the band's latest, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, is certainly satisfying our sweet tooth for epic, metallic post rock grandiosity with a healthy dose of DOOM. Like Neurosis, ASoL takes things into sprawling psychedelic territory, but Graham's clear and powerful vocals may actually be enough for this to appeal to the non-metalheads as well. The sound here is absolutely HUGE, and the awesome/ridiculous artwork, with its collection of discarded objects, animals, and massive landforms, should give you a pretty good indication of the surreal, dreamlike qualities represented on this disc. It's pretty refreshing hearing a band bring such crushingly heavy sounds into a realm that is also very tuneful, catchy, and triumphant. Thematically, the album seems to revolve around some sort of post-industrial collapse - you know, like the one just around the corner - perfectly represented on the opening track, which features a chilling spoken word piece by Lydia Lunch accompanied by a... banjo? Yep, the "almost sea shanty-ish" arrangements we described on Primitive North prevail here as well, not that you'll be thinking of pirates (or maybe you will), it's just that the songs take on a massive, back and forth sort of sway like they are being controlled by the elements.
So yeah, maybe it took us a while to take note of these guys, but we're sure glad we did. Better late than never.
MPEG Stream: "Amber Waves Of Gray"
MPEG Stream: "Tempest"
MPEG Stream: "The Light In Their Eyes"

AIR Love 2 (Astralwerks) cd 16.98
A few years ago when we saw Air play live we realized that these guys weren't just some studio creation, they are in fact totally a real live band! While they initially made their mark with Moon Safari, a record that became a sonic touchstone of the electronic music revolution of the '90s, over the ensuing decade plus, Air have continued to evolve, experiment and transform into incredible music makers, whose exquisitely varied tastes help push their sound way beyond 'electronica', a sound that manages to be lush and intoxicating, catchy and so damn satisfying.
With Love 2, Air continue to expand their sonic scope even further, introducing (or re-introducing) elements of prog, French pop, psych, soundtracks, library music, and even some slight hints of krautrock, all those disparate sounds seductively seeping into their music, their vintage gear infusing the sounds with a classic warmth and timeless vibe. They're like a modern day version of Franco Battiato or Lucio Battisti, the way they conjure up such rich and lush sounds that twist and turn deliciously. Or imagine a collaboration between Ennio Morricone and Serge Gainsbourg!!
Even folks who never though of themselves as big Air fans have been totally smitten by this record whenever we play it in the store.
MPEG Stream: "Tropical Disease"
MPEG Stream: "Sing Sang Sung"
MPEG Stream: "Do The Joy"

ARMAGEDDON s/t (Esoteric) cd 23.00
A few things you might want to know about Armageddon (this band/album, not the Biblical battlefield of the Apocalypse described in the Book Of Revelations, and presumably depicted on the album cover, with the longhaired band lounging about smoking cigarettes in the foreground):
1) Despite the name, it's not a really heavy metal. Recorded in 1974, you could certainly call it "proto-metal", though, as well as "heavy progressive".
2) Don't confuse 'em with the other proto-metal band with more-or-less the same name. That band spells their name with two g's and one d. This band spells their name with one g and two d's. That Armaggedon were from Germany's krautrock scene, this Armageddon were a UK-USA sorta supergroup.
3) Their singer was Keith Relf, originally of The Yardbirds and later Renaissance, and this was his last recorded project before his tragic death from electrocution whilst practicing guitar in '76.
4) On drums, was Bobby Caldwell of Captain Beyond. There's some extra proto-metal cred!
5) And perhaps most importantly, this band included 2 ex-members of British bluesrock act Steamhammer, guitarist Martin Pugh and bassist Louis Cennamo. Steamhammer's best and proggiest album, Speech, is a long-time AQ fave in the heavy prog / proto-metal genre, recently reissued and relisted here not long ago. If you dig Speech, you'll also want to hear Armageddon, in fact, they open up here with a completely rippin' song, "Buzzard", that's adapted from a track on Speech.
6) According to the sleeve, Cennamo claimed to be the "originator of the electric bowed bass guitar".
7) Armageddon's sole, self-titled album has been newly reissued on cd by the Esoteric label, superseding the previous (and hard to find) Repertoire edition, with nicer packaging.
8) Oh yeah, it totally kicks ass and rocks hard, while maintaining an aura of psychedelic hippie higher-minded mysticism. We mentioned speedster "Buzzard", then there's "Silver Tightrope" and "Paths And Planes And Future Gains", both of which sound kinda like a combination of Yes and Captain Beyond, in different and complex ways. "Last Stand Before" is a rollickin', almost funky one too, and then the album wraps up with the four-part epic "Basking In The White Of The Midnight Sun", full of fierce fuzz, percussive bombardment, and some of the heaviest harmonica soloing this side of Sabbath's "The Wizard". What with their pedigree, Armageddon had a knack for breakneck (and quite catchy!) bluesrock riffage, like we said rippin' from the get-go of "Buzzard" through to the finale of "Basking", energetic and exuberant throughout but for the occasional calmer bit of reverie (like on "Silver Tightrope") wherein Relf takes the listener for some lovely astral trippin'.
9) We recommend it, especially to all proto-metal, heavy prog fiends! You know who you are, if you like Captain Beyond, Steamhammer, early Wishbone Ash, Wild Turkey, Tarkus, Toad, early Deep Purple, etc...
That's it. If you want to know more, there's always the liner notes, so buy the disc!! Then you'll get to hear the whole thing too.
MPEG Stream: "Buzzard"
MPEG Stream: "Paths And Planes And Future Gains"

BACHELORETTE Do The Circuit (Drag City) 7" 5.98
Bachelorette is responsible for one of our favorite new albums, My Electric Family has been in constant rotation here for months now. It's proven to be on of those rare records that only gets better and sinks in deeper with repeated listens.
So two brand new tracks from this New Zealand songstress was bound to make us (and you) way happy, especially since they are such great songs and not just some random throwaway jams. The A-side "Do The Circuit" kind of sums up all that we love about Bachelorette, such great use of electronics, the swaying, sexy and hypnotic vocals and swirling melodies, all making for one of those perfect play over and over again 7" songs. The B-side "I Want To Be Your Girlfriend" is fueled by a rad primitive sounding drum machine, crunchy guitars and really awesome lyrics about Bachelorette wanting to be someone's, you guessed it, girlfriend. It has this awesome bubblegum new wave vibe that sounds a bit like Bjork covering Gary Numan!

BAKER, AIDAN & BRANDON VALDIVIA Live 2008-14-11 (Universal Tongue) 3"cd 9.98
Another killer release From Universal Tongue, and the first Aidan Baker / Nadja release in THREE New Arrivals lists! That might be a record, hope nobody was going through withdrawals! And fear not, we should be back on our biweekly schedule of Nadja and/or Baker releases, we'll have the Nadja collaboration with Pyramids on the next list, and now, we have this super limited Aidan Baker jam, another collaboration, this one with drummer Brandon Valdivia, a way spacier jazzier direction that most of what we've heard from Baker, but still blissed out and dreamy enough to appeal to folks who dig the usual Baker action.
The drums here shuffle and skitter, lots of sizzling cymbals, the guitars moan, the thrum, drift and shimmer, the single minute track here, recorded live in 2008 at a festival in Germany, twists and turns, going from minimal bliss out, to gnarled jazzy crunch, to moaning abstract drift to heavy avant pound. Cool stuff for sure.
This one is a proper cd, NOT a cd-r, but still limited to only 323 copies. Like the other UT releases, packaged in a cool 5" mini dvd case, with a full color cover/insert, with artwork by Mories aka Gnaw Their Tongues!!
MPEG Stream: "Live 2008-14-11"

BARE WIRES Artificial Clouds (Tic Tac Totally) lp 14.98
First long player from Bare Wires, a band best known around these parts for being the OTHER band of the guy from Snake Flower 2, whose recent full length knocked us on our asses with it's wild hybrid of distorted garage rock and drone-y druggy FX drenched space rock. Bare Wires are a whole different beast, less heavy, less spacey, but way more poppy, and garage-y, and thankfully equally as catchy. Where SF2 reminded us of a garage rock Hawkwind or Monster Magnet, Bare Wires are all classic garage and power pop, but with just enough of that modern warp-age to keep it interesting.
Record opener "Artificial Clouds" pretty much sets the tone, and in the process, sets itself up as another contender for jam of the year, total tripped out effects wrapped around some seriously rocking lo-fi twisted garage noise pop, with some incredible guitar parts and a main hook to die for. A record full of tracks like this should have Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys and the rest of that crowd sweating it big time. And that's exactly what this is, hooky, jangly, melodic, frenetic, catchy as fuck, a little spacey and druggy for sure, but way more heavy on the classic power pop and sixties garage jangle, which is just fine by us!

BARE WIRES Let Down (Milk 'n' Hepes Records) 7" 5.98
We all went so totally crazy for Snake Flower 2, so we were psyched to discover that the dude from SF2 had another band, a more old school garage rock combo called Bare Wires, which as we might have expected, is just as kick ass. Imagine SF2 with less of a Hawkwind / Monster Magnet vibe, and more of a Lyres / Gories sort of sixties garage vibe. Jangly, lo-fi garage punk with lots of jangle guitars, reverbed snotty vox, simple stripped down rhythms, and best of all some super blown out, in-the-red psychedelic leads, so loud they nearly blot out the rest of the song.
The flipside is way more poppy, a sweet slice of classic AM radio power pop jangle, lo-fi, and sing songy, catchy as hell, still stripped down, but less distorted and more melodic. Folks into current garage rock revival weirdos like Thee Oh Sees and the Fresh & Onlys will definitely dig this, same overall sonic vibe, just way more fuzzed out and retro and genuinely garage-y.

BASEMENT JAXX Scars (XL) cd 15.98
When it comes to modern day dance music it just doesn't get a whole lot more colorful, joyful and F.U.N. then the Basement Jaxx. What's always set them apart from so many of their peers is that while most good dance minded outfits tend to rely so heavily on retro influences, Basement Jazz, who for sure have absorbed the best in dance music of the last few decades from disco to house, electro and hip-hop, instead take those sounds and warp and personalize and modernize, creating their own distinct vision and sound. Scars is ranking right next to Rooty, one of our other favorite Basement Jazz jams, so full of such infectious songs that not only totally make you shake it, but they also have a really nice wide range of emotions and an incredibly lush sonic palette, with guest vocalists like Yoko Ono, Sam Sparro, Santogold, Kelis, Yo Majesty, etc. bringing their own distinct flavor to the mix. Scars is the kind of record that will get you moving AND get stuck in your head, we've already listened to it so many times and it's holding up so well on repeated listens. Who knows when Daft Punk will ever release a new album, but until then, the other major titan in modern dance brilliance will keep our bootys shaking!
MPEG Stream: "Raindrops"
MPEG Stream: "Feelings Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Day Of The Sunflowers (We March On) featuring Yoko Ono"

BASILLICA Kingdom Of Status (Blackest Rainbow) cd-r 9.98
First solo release from Mike Bong, and no Bong's not his last name (at least we don't think so), we're talking about Mike from UK spacedronedruglords Bong, who have become fast favorites around these parts, and it's obvious why. A. They're called Bong. B. They traffic in spaced out doom drone sludge. And C. They rule.
So we were psyched to discover one of the Bong dudes had a solo record, we grabbed nearly a quarter of the whole pressing, but odds are that's probably still not enough, so Bong fans act fast, cuz this disc is pretty excellent. We weren't sure what to expect, something maybe Bonglike, and Sealed Temple sort of is, but it's also pretty different. Imagine a single riff, played over and over into a Dictaphone, and played back on a busted old VCR, and you'd be getting close, or imagine a Bong / Skaters mash up, super lo-fi, looped and mantric, just guitar, all wreathed in haze and buzz and tape hiss, sorta like old Earth records, but way more brittle and low fidelity. That's just the first track.
The follow up is a bit more lush, still lo-fi, but drone out and fuzzy, tinkling guitar parts drift amidst the looped buzz and warbly low end whir. A sort of stripped down abstract shoegaze drone, super minimal and hypnotic. The final track is like a mix of the two, a warped slowcore crawl, slowly unfurling riffs over slithery low end rumbles, all tangled seasick melody and soft focus drift, like a woozy, drug addles Sunroof! playing at 16 rpm. Cool!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We have 20 or so, and it's already out of print, so these are the only copies we'll ever have...
MPEG Stream: "Warm Blight"
MPEG Stream: "Sealed Temple"
MPEG Stream: "Smoke Your Way To The End"

BLACK HEART PROCESSION Six (Temporary Residence) cd 15.98
Remember when the Black Heart Procession used to be good? Well, it's not hard because that time is NOW! After the universally acknowledged disappointment that was The Spell, TBHP has returned to form beautifully with Six. There's lots of piano and strings and organs and maracas and moodiness and drama and WAY less guitar.
After the slow opening number "When You Finish Me", comprised mainly of the abovementioned piano and strings, there's "Wasteland", a catchy bass-and-vocals driven dirge. And although in their live shows it's obvious frontman Pall Jenkins' voice has not held up as well as one might have hoped, on record it still sounds great, especially in the slower, more spoken / less sung pieces. When the third song, "Witching Stone", opens with a catchy guitar riff and you think to yourself, "Oh no, not more guitar!" fear not, noble listeners, for once the guitar has served its purpose, it soon fades in the mix and is replaced by organs and extra percussion.
On the whole, the tone of the record seems somewhere between Three and Amore del Tropico. Six is occasionally moody and sparse like Three, but usually full and flushed out like Amore. Flashes of Latin rhythms pop up like skeletons of old friends. Also, bass guitar is an essential element to almost every song, whereas TBHP used to rely more on the low end of the piano.
Further on in the record we find "Suicide", probably the noisiest and most varied track on the record, one that definitely should be listened to on headphones. Building up in layers, a maraca here, an organ there, after a minute and a half, it explodes into a (gasp!) booty-shaking chorus filled with screaming synths and guitars that abruptly cuts off, only to be built back up again. Excellent.
Where TBHP really shine, though, is in their slow songs; they master a certain space that few bands can even enter. One of the best songs on the record, "Drugs", is also the shortest: a concise yet mind-expanding piano-and-strings ballad about, you guessed it, drugs.
The album comes on three formats, each slightly different from the others. The double lp comes on three-sided vinyl (the fourth side is etched artwork) and features different (and better) cover art than the cd. For you collectors, there is also a limited edition heart-shaped flash drive necklace that comes in a heart-shaped etched metal box. It contains the full album, a digital copy of the booklet & artwork and also a music video for the song "Witching Stone".
MPEG Stream: "Drugs"
MPEG Stream: "When You Finish Me"
MPEG Stream: "Rats"

BLACK HEART PROCESSION Six (Temporary Residence) 2lp 16.98
Remember when the Black Heart Procession used to be good? Well, it's not hard because that time is NOW! After the universally acknowledged disappointment that was The Spell, TBHP has returned to form beautifully with Six. There's lots of piano and strings and organs and maracas and moodiness and drama and WAY less guitar.
After the slow opening number "When You Finish Me", comprised mainly of the abovementioned piano and strings, there's "Wasteland", a catchy bass-and-vocals driven dirge. And although in their live shows it's obvious frontman Pall Jenkins' voice has not held up as well as one might have hoped, on record it still sounds great, especially in the slower, more spoken / less sung pieces. When the third song, "Witching Stone", opens with a catchy guitar riff and you think to yourself, "Oh no, not more guitar!" fear not, noble listeners, for once the guitar has served its purpose, it soon fades in the mix and is replaced by organs and extra percussion.
On the whole, the tone of the record seems somewhere between Three and Amore del Tropico. Six is occasionally moody and sparse like Three, but usually full and flushed out like Amore. Flashes of Latin rhythms pop up like skeletons of old friends. Also, bass guitar is an essential element to almost every song, whereas TBHP used to rely more on the low end of the piano.
Further on in the record we find "Suicide", probably the noisiest and most varied track on the record, one that definitely should be listened to on headphones. Building up in layers, a maraca here, an organ there, after a minute and a half, it explodes into a (gasp!) booty-shaking chorus filled with screaming synths and guitars that abruptly cuts off, only to be built back up again. Excellent.
Where TBHP really shine, though, is in their slow songs; they master a certain space that few bands can even enter. One of the best songs on the record, "Drugs", is also the shortest: a concise yet mind-expanding piano-and-strings ballad about, you guessed it, drugs.
The album comes on three formats, each slightly different from the others. The double lp comes on three-sided vinyl (the fourth side is etched artwork) and features different (and better) cover art than the cd. For you collectors, there is also a limited edition heart-shaped flash drive necklace that comes in a heart-shaped etched metal box. It contains the full album, a digital copy of the booklet & artwork and also a music video for the song "Witching Stone".
MPEG Stream: "Drugs"
MPEG Stream: "When You Finish Me"
MPEG Stream: "Rats"

BLACK HEART PROCESSION Six (Temporary Residence) usb stick 16.98
Remember when the Black Heart Procession used to be good? Well, it's not hard because that time is NOW! After the universally acknowledged disappointment that was The Spell, TBHP has returned to form beautifully with Six. There's lots of piano and strings and organs and maracas and moodiness and drama and WAY less guitar.
After the slow opening number "When You Finish Me", comprised mainly of the abovementioned piano and strings, there's "Wasteland", a catchy bass-and-vocals driven dirge. And although in their live shows it's obvious frontman Pall Jenkins' voice has not held up as well as one might have hoped, on record it still sounds great, especially in the slower, more spoken / less sung pieces. When the third song, "Witching Stone", opens with a catchy guitar riff and you think to yourself, "Oh no, not more guitar!" fear not, noble listeners, for once the guitar has served its purpose, it soon fades in the mix and is replaced by organs and extra percussion.
On the whole, the tone of the record seems somewhere between Three and Amore del Tropico. Six is occasionally moody and sparse like Three, but usually full and flushed out like Amore. Flashes of Latin rhythms pop up like skeletons of old friends. Also, bass guitar is an essential element to almost every song, whereas TBHP used to rely more on the low end of the piano.
Further on in the record we find "Suicide", probably the noisiest and most varied track on the record, one that definitely should be listened to on headphones. Building up in layers, a maraca here, an organ there, after a minute and a half, it explodes into a (gasp!) booty-shaking chorus filled with screaming synths and guitars that abruptly cuts off, only to be built back up again. Excellent.
Where TBHP really shine, though, is in their slow songs; they master a certain space that few bands can even enter. One of the best songs on the record, "Drugs", is also the shortest: a concise yet mind-expanding piano-and-strings ballad about, you guessed it, drugs.
The album comes on three formats, each slightly different from the others. The double lp comes on three-sided vinyl (the fourth side is etched artwork) and features different (and better) cover art than the cd. For you collectors, there is also a limited edition heart-shaped flash drive necklace that comes in a heart-shaped etched metal box. It contains the full album, a digital copy of the booklet & artwork and also a music video for the song "Witching Stone".
MPEG Stream: "Drugs"
MPEG Stream: "When You Finish Me"
MPEG Stream: "Rats"

BLOODLINE Hate Procession (Canonical Hours) cd 13.98
You gotta respect a band when they thank their friends AND their enemies for inspiration. Certainly when it's a black metal band, because Sweden's Bloodline - featuring alumni from Naglfar, Shining, and Ondskapt - have channeled a good deal of misanthropy and concentrated hatred to produce an album of plodding, doomridden black metal with a couple extra heapings of all out negativity. The guitars are like napalm, the singer's got a great classic black metal scream, and even though they might hate to hear it, these songs are just plain catchy, filled with awesome riffs and moments of soaring guitar leads that stick in your head. Every once in a while, they will bring in some disturbing soundclips and whispy synths, which provide a nice contrast to the evil sound that defines most of Hate Procession. There are also moments of cold, windy ambience that make you pretty much want to curl up in a fetal position and die in the nearest snowbank. The tempos never reach the lightning fast speed that so many black metal bands go for, with the band instead focusing their energy on establishing a steady pound that helps bring out a quality many bands neglect - TRUE HEAVINESS. These songs are burly as fuck, and the steady beat in "Jerusalem Addio" and the industrial, stuttering rhythm of "Day Of The Vulture" are all Bloodline needs to put the posers in their place.
If the songs themselves weren't enough to fill you in on Bloodline's nihilistic m.o., the plethora of disturbing images should help to explain everything. Maybe a bit too extreme in certain parts for the casual observer, but those who like their metal mean will certainly find this much to their liking.
MPEG Stream: "The Great Becoming"
MPEG Stream: "Jerusalem Addio"
MPEG Stream: "Day Of The Vulture"

BO MARLEY VS. DISRUPT s/t (Jahtari) cd 21.00
It's been almost two years since the last Disrupt record, 1997's Foundation Bit, a killer head spinning mix of old school 8-bit Atari sounds and bass heavy dub and dubstep. A pretty potent combo for sure, and that record still gets lots of play, so we were pretty psyched to discover there were not one, but TWO new Disrupt discs, the other one, The Bass Has Left The Building, we'll review on a future list, but this one is the one that has been driving us nuts, forcing us to listen to it over and over and over. The MO is pretty much the same, but somehow, the dub is even deeper and bassier, and the video game sounds are way more pronounced, which makes for some seriously fun and funky shit.
Album opener "Bauhelm Tracker" sounds like a video game soundtrack remixed by some dub sound system, before the follow up track which is a straight dub version, complete with soulful vocals, groovy and dark and smoldering, which leads right into the dub version, which is awesomely spaced out and druggy, snare cracks careening all over the place, effects swirling and swooping, head spinning and so good.
And the rest of the record follows a similar pattern, with the 'tracker' version being the eighties video game soundtrack version, then the straight up vocal version, and sometimes a super spaced out dub version. Thankfully, Disrupt and Marley are loose enough to let diverge from that pattern whenever the mood strikes them, so a dub version will be laced with some bloops and bleeps, or a video game jam will get all dubby.
Such an incredible palette of sounds, and these two have such a deft hand at arranging, that things never sound cheesy or silly, playful maybe, fun and a little ridiculous here and there for sure, but overall these are just some seriously deep dubby grooves, that just so happen to be laced with some 8-bit bleep, which as far as we're concerned is not a bad thing at all.
MPEG Stream: "Bauhelm Tracker"
MPEG Stream: "Bauhelm Dub"
MPEG Stream: "Robot Tracker"
MPEG Stream: "Robot Echos"

BOGGS, DOCK Legendary Singer & Banjo Player (Smithsonian Folkways) lp 16.98
A few lists back we reviewed Dock Boggs' False Hearted Lovers on the ever reliable Monk reissue label. That slab focused on Boggs' initial recordings on the Brunswick label dating back to the late 1920s. In the ensuing years, the financial setbacks of the Great Depression forced Boggs to retire from music, and most of the world failed to take note of his work. With the growing interest in folk music in the '50s and '60s (Boggs was included on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music back in 1951), Boggs was rediscovered by Mike Seeger in 1963 and given another chance to show people a thing or two. These recordings were first released in 1964 by Smithsonian Folkways, who have thankfully re-released them on vinyl (definitely the most appropriate format for this kind of thing) for a new generation of music obsessives. By this point, Boggs was an old man, but it's more than apparent that he's still got it. Though Boggs' voice obviously shows signs of age, his nasally croak is still full of energy, passion, and humor, and the songs here, including reworked versions of classics like "Oh Death" and "Pretty Polly", are the work of a man who grew wise with age and had no difficulty maintaining his remarkable style of banjo playing. The songs display a nice hillbilly sort of sound, a raw and no frills approach that Boggs delivers with everything he's got. The recordings are clear and powerful, and even though the songs themselves are relatively simple - after all, it's just an old man and a banjo - they take on a higher level of intensity than anyone would expect.
This handsome reissue comes with a cool pasted on image of Boggs in his early days and includes detailed liner notes with explanations for the songs and even some banjo tunings!

BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY Stay (Drag City) 7" 6.50
It's pretty cool how the roles are reversed on this latest BPB single. Susanna K. Wallumrod aka Susanna & The Magical Orchestra has become well known for her breathtaking covers of everyone from Tom Petty, Roy Harper, Joy Division, Thin Lizzy, Prince, etc. She has also covered Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy, so it's awesome to see him return the favor covering two of HER songs on this brand new 7". Both tracks give BPB the opportunity to return to a much more stark and stripped down aesthetic, eschewing the more lush and fleshed out sound of his more recent recordings. We kind of love when he strips away lots of those layers, as it's the haunting quality of his playing and vocals and delivery that really made so many of us fall in love with his music in the first place. If you like your Will Oldham stark and rustic then this 7" has your name all over it!

BORIS Boris At Last -Feedbacker- (Conspiracy) lp 19.98
This was once before on vinyl, as a 30 dollar Japanese import. Now, it's been re-released on wax by Belgium's Conspiracy label, at 2/3rds the price! For anyone who missed out originally, here's our review of this 2004 Boris classic (currently out of print on cd by the way) explaining how much we love this record:
It's that time again. When AQ regulars start coming in every day like junkies looking for a fix, "Do you have it yet? C'mon man, when are you gonna get it?" And in fact, they are junkies, only they're looking for their HEAVINESS fix. That fix that only Japanese sludge/doom gods Boris can provide. We were pretty into Boris' recent Akuma No Uta cd ep, that added all sorts of sonic weirdness to their new found super-charged Stooges, stoner rock sound (a la Heavy Rocks). But some of us were still longing for a return to the glacial, slow motion doom/drone days of old: Amplifier Worship, Absolutego (sadly now out of print) even the comparatively serene Flood (Allan's favorite). And while we can't tell you this is entirely that return, it's darn close, and we'd say it's easily one of their best records yet. At Last (aka Feedbacker) is a breathtaking, 50 minute epic, split into five movements. Things start with a slow slow build, drones and rumbles and huge sheets of distorted guitars, weaving a heaving tapestry of sonic unrest, a static buzz that towers over you like an ancient stone wall, threatening to heave forward, bricks of sonic sludge crushing you beneath their suffocating weight. The big surprise though comes in the second movement as the wall of sludge dissipates into the ether, leaving a smoky hazy gauze, through which Boris emerge, as an almost-pop band, simple spare drumming, heavily reverbed shimmery chords, subtle muted wah guitar with a distant swirling backdrop of wind tunnel effects and howling feedback. Then vocalist Takeshi joins the fray with mumbled, keening sad boy vocals reminding us of Greg Dulli in his Afghan Whigs days, and then drums get all dubbed out, and suddenly everything is druggy and trippy, like the whole record was soaked in cough syrup. All the while Boris' guitar goddess Wata spits out super distorted leads, all melancholy and emotional, strings bending, feedback threatening to overwhelm the notes. The mellow parts definitely remind us of Codeine, which is a VERY good thing. Also, Windy and Carl, the Wipers a little, and even that eighties Homestead records sound. But it wouldn't be Boris if things didn't get HEAVY. And they do. Really heavy. The rest of the record is an aural tug of war between Boris' Earth/SUNNO))) doom tendencies and their gorgeous, shimmery, druggy psychedelia. Imagine Godspeed You Black Emperor, raised on doom metal and seventies psych, and fronted by a female Hendrix! It's that fucking amazing.
MPEG Stream: "At Last Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: "At Last Pt. 2"

BORIS Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol. 2 (Southern Lord) 7" 5.98
Second volume in the Japanese Heavy Rock Hits series from long beloved Japanese heavy rockers Boris. Whereas the first volume was all over the map, with the trio exploring shoegaze-y bliss rock on one side, and some murky Ariel Pink-ish anti pop on the other, Volume 2 finds the band back in more recognizably Boris territory. Sort of.
The A side, "Heavy Metal Addict" falls somewhere between true metal tribute, and goofball taking-the-piss fucking around, with a bad ass meaty main riff, some soaring reverbed vocals, but then some weird Gary Glitter sing along / handclapping, and some really fucked up production, which at the beginning sounds like two records playing at once. The result is a bit loose, and sounds a bit like the band messing around at practice, but it's still fun, and a cool Pink era sounding metal jam. And check out the video online, which features Japanese glam band Sex Virgin Killer, a rad visual kei band (look it up!) rocking out, practicing, smashing stuff, and holy shit are they awesome looking, with some of the BIGGEST, wildest hair you'll ever see. Weird that Boris just basically dubbed their music over another band's video, but it did get us all excited to track down some Sex Virgin Killer music....
Flip the record over, and stuff gets all weird again, with the band hauling out the drum machine, and getting all lo-fi pop / eighties new wave, with angular guitars, stuttery rhythms, and breathless soft focus vox. Pretty cool. Sure a lot of folks are wondering 'what the fuck', but Boris have always been the sort of band to defy and confound, and while we may yearn for the days of Flood and Amplifier Worship, we're way digging this new wave thing Boris have going on now.
Garish glamor shot cover art, looks like each member will get the cover of one single, saving Wata for last of course, this one features the drummer, we think, with big teased hair, and unzipped jeans revealing his pink tie dyed briefs, all beneath a haze of Stephen O'Malley geometric graphic design. Weird.
Like the first volume, and the forthcoming third, super limited, and it would be a drag not not have the whole set, so hop to it!

CALIFONE All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Dead Oceans) cd 14.98
Califone have always been a tough band to pin down, with roots in mighty alt country indie legends Red Red Meat, Califone took RRM's brood and twang, and updated it a bit, expanding the instrumentation, adding loops, electronics, studio trickery, even soul and funk on past records.
All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, like past installments of Califone's ongoing and ever mutating musical saga, conjures up a gorgeous darkness, a softly brooding twang flecked creep, with a definite nod to the modern. At some points it almost evokes how we might imagine an alt country Portishead might sound. But RRM frontman Tim Rutili still has one of the most gorgeous voices, weathered and worn, definitely a case of one of those voices that could sing the phonebook, and the minute he sings, especially over a ragged steel string guitar, it's totally transformative, gives us the same sort of feeling when we hear one of those classic Uncle Tupelo tracks, or again, any of those timeless Red Red Meat jams.
While there are plenty of experimental moments, All My Friends might just be the most old school and classic sounding Califone record in a while, lots of acoustic guitar, plenty of stripped down countrified grooves, and those vocals... So great. Been listening to this like crazy!
MPEG Stream: "Giving Away The Bride"
MPEG Stream: "Polish Girls"
MPEG Stream: "Krill"

CALIFONE All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Dead Oceans) 2lp 17.98
Califone have always been a tough band to pin down, with roots in mighty alt country indie legends Red Red Meat, Califone took RRM's brood and twang, and updated it a bit, expanding the instrumentation, adding loops, electronics, studio trickery, even soul and funk on past records.
All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, like past installments of Califone's ongoing and ever mutating musical saga, conjures up a gorgeous darkness, a softly brooding twang flecked creep, with a definite nod to the modern. At some points it almost evokes how we might imagine an alt country Portishead might sound. But RRM frontman Tim Rutili still has one of the most gorgeous voices, weathered and worn, definitely a case of one of those voices that could sing the phonebook, and the minute he sings, especially over a ragged steel string guitar, it's totally transformative, gives us the same sort of feeling when we hear one of those classic Uncle Tupelo tracks, or again, any of those timeless Red Red Meat jams.
While there are plenty of experimental moments, All My Friends might just be the most old school and classic sounding Califone record in a while, lots of acoustic guitar, plenty of stripped down countrified grooves, and those vocals... So great. Been listening to this like crazy!
MPEG Stream: "Giving Away The Bride"
MPEG Stream: "Polish Girls"
MPEG Stream: "Krill"

CLUBROOT s/t (LoDubs) 2lp + cd 19.98
One of our favorite records of the 2009 so far, and definite contender for dubstep jam of the year, has just been reissued as a super deluxe double lp, BUT, not only does it include the original cd as a bonus, the tracks on the vinyl are completely different mixes, so vinyl fiends are in luck, you get both versions, and if you missed out before, now's your chance, we got about 20 copies, it's already sold out, so once these are gone we won't be able to get more EVER.
Here's our review from when we first listed this back in June:
One of two discs vying for our personal dubstep disc of the year. The other is the recent Mordant Music disc, an unlikely collaboration between Mordant and the Skull Disco crew, and this, the first full length from mysterious atmospheric dubstep soundscaper Clubroot.
We know nothing about this guy (or these guys?), other than he takes that dubbed out skitter we love so much and sets it in expansive fields of swirling ambience, creeped out dronescapes and all manner of super evocative and gorgeously textural soundworlds. Where as most dubstep is super spare and stripped down, skeletal even, the sound here is lush and sprawling. Thick layers of synths whir and shimmer and buzz, deep swells throbbing and pulsing, everything hazy and gauzy and washed out, every song some sort of otherworldy dreamscape, shot through with some super bad ass bit of pounding churning dubstep stutter. The massive basslines and fluctuating synth buzz that usually adds texture to typical dubstep, here just becomes another element in Clubroot's mysterious mist shrouded sonic landscape.
The cover features a lonely tree, set atop a rocky outcropping, the sky dense with clouds, the picture all misty and hauntingly lonely seeming, which perfectly reflects the mood of the music here. Strip away the beats, and you'd still be left with an incredible bit of blackened new age swirl, of abstract kosmiche krautdrone, but add the beats, and these sounds become something entirely other. This is definitely not dancemusic, this is mind expansion music. Late night, lights off, starting at the stars drifting off, other dimension, spaced out, dream dub music.
Clubroot taps into the same darkside as Burial, and Kode9, and the more atmospheric beatmakers, but where those guys pull back before the fog grows to thick, Clubroot pushes forward, traveling through the dark forest, into some forbidden zone, some land lost in time, lost from time, a massive emptiness, as beautiful as it is lonely and ominous, and this is the soundtrack to that lost world. So intense and haunting and unlike any other dubstep, or electronic music even, that we've heard before. The rare sort of record that lets even the most jaded and heard-it-all listener get totally, and fantastically lost.
And if you need more than our effusive gushing praise, look no further than Fenriz, 1/2 of legendary black metal duo Darkthrone, a long time lover of techno and electronic music, who has this to say about Clubroot:
"This is the sort of soaring dubstep I'd never expect to come out of the US! I just transferred the adorable "Embryo" track to my MP3 player FAVES 09 list, as I am going tenting and swimming in a forest lake tomorrow with some connoiceur-friends [sic]. It's sleek and not nasty, the melodic kind and not the grimy. But wait a minute, it seems like the newest tracks are on first, as the last songs drift into some de-tranced balearic style, even with vocals stabs and 90s synths! Blimey."
And if you can't trust Fenriz on matters of dubstep, then who can you trust? WAY recommended. And quite possibly dubstep record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Low Pressure Zone"
MPEG Stream: "Embryo"
MPEG Stream: "High Strung"
MPEG Stream: "Dulcet"

CONGA DE LOS HOYOS Carnival Music Of Eastern Cuba (World Audio Foundation / Soul Jazz) cd 17.98
Whoa!!!! There is really no other way to begin a review of this mind blowing collection of carnival music from Eastern Cuba. The World Audio Foundation, an offshoot of the always awesome Soul Jazz label, seems to be on a tear lately as we are still listening to the Anchiskhati Choir (the only other release on the label so far, currently being repressed or something) all the time, although we have to say Conga De Los Hoyos takes it all to another level.
Take any preconceived notions of what you think carnival music from Cuba might sound like because this blasts into some other sonic plane as the music here pulsates with the raging sounds of the Chinese trumpet (?), along with over 50 percussionists playing everything from hubcaps to car brake drums to congas and more. This amazing and gorgeous cacophony has us thinking of some charged melding of the intense zorna sounds of Zadik Zecharia with the relentless momentum of Konono No.1, or maybe Pharoah Sanders and the Master Musicians of Joujuka taking to the streets to create the kind of wild street party we wish was happenin' on OUR street.
The fact that all these sounds come from the Los Hoyos neighborhood of Santiago, in a tradition that's been going strong since 1902 only makes this more mind boggling, and is another reminder that in almost every nook, corner and neighborhood of the world, people have found a way to use music to communicate in a way that's truly universal and in this case totally transcendent!
MPEG Stream: "Un Solo Golpe"
MPEG Stream: "Hasta Santiago a Pie"
MPEG Stream: "Apertura"

CONVERGE Axe To Fall (Epitaph) cd 15.98
Some bands mellow with age. That's just the way it is... sometimes. Converge is definitely NOT one of those bands, and almost two decades into their career, they're still just as furious as ever and showing no signs of age (though they were only teenagers when they started, it's not like they're a bunch of old dudes). It's almost unbelievable to think how a band like this could maintain such an insane amount of energy, but we're happy to report that things don't appear to be slowing down by any measure. There's tons of crazy guitar leads, super aggressive bass playing that holds things down like an anchor, tight as fuck drumming, and of course, frontman Jacob Bannon's throat-ripping banshee screams.
Axe To Fall, like the other post-Jane Doe Converge records, retains the unfathomable brutality of that definitive record and adds an approach that, as weird as it may sound, seems to exude a heavy rock n' roll influence. There's really no other way to put it: this shit rocks hard. Perhaps the best thing about Converge is, even in the moments of sheer metallic evil (which is most of them), they are still highly musical and catchy, and the band's incredible musicianship allows them to take things where few other hardcore groups are capable of going. Yep, nothing quite hits the spot like Converge. Featuring contributions from an assortment of noteworthy heavies, including dudes from Cave In, Entombed/Disfear (the awesomely monickered Ufe Cederlund), Himsa, Neurosis, Genghis Tron, and probably some others. Awesome stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Dark Horse"
MPEG Stream: "Reap What You Sow"
MPEG Stream: "Axe To Fall"

CURSILLISTAS Les Biches (Time-Lag) cd 13.98
We've been hearing about these guys for a while now, often mentioned in the same breath as other hyped underground groups like Natural Snow Buildings, King Kong Ding Dong, Barn Owl, etc. But this is the first time we've actually heard them, and we have to say it does live up to the hype. Although in many ways it reminds us way more of the Finnish forest folk(s), sort of abstract, meandery, a little clattery, spacious and skeletal, haunting and otherworldly. Another record it reminds us of a little bit is Smog's Julius Caesar, although this is way more abstract and deconstructed, but it has the same sort of barebones lo-fi songsmithery. The guitars creak and groan, the vocals are moaned and crooned, effects swirl, flutes flutter, all spread out in a slow shifting, dreamily drifting psych folk, that should definitely appeal to fans of Six Organs, Avarus, Steven R Smith and the like. But Cursillistas can be dark and noisy too, some of the songs building to sinister climaxes, plenty of careening FX, some WAY up in the mix, while others continue on lilting gently, vocals always distorted, but they still creak and crack with emotion, hand drums crank out tribal rhythms, bells chime, everything hazy and washed out and dreamy. A few tracks get all back porchy and twangy, reminding us of Red Red Meat or Souled American, while others get all droned out and effects drenched, twisting tangled stretches of overlapping tones, tweaked effects, garbled vox, and blurred melodies.
Beautiful hand screened sleeves, with printed vellum inserts. NICE.
MPEG Stream: "The Snake And The Motor"
MPEG Stream: "Toy Tone Yr. Death"
MPEG Stream: "Crooked Isle"

DEVIL'S ANVIL, THE Hard Rock From The Middle East (Rev-Ola) cd 15.98
We LOVE this album, and have for a long time. We first reviewed a reissue of this "exotic" 1967 garage-fuzz gem back in 2001, in fact making it a Record Of The Week. That reissue was a somewhat odd 2-fer-1 deal that included an album by another, pretty much utterly unrelated '60s psych band, The Freak Scene, kinda cool but not Middle Eastern styled like The Devil's Anvil. And it was The Devil's Anvil that was the real treasure on that disc, as far as we were concerned. If you haven't heard it yet, you're in luck, 'cause it's just been reissued again, getting a disc all to itself this time, courtesy of vintage rock specialists Rev-Ola, who do their usual nice job with the packaging and all.
The cover art shows the band hangin' in the desert in front of the pyramids of Egypt - but don't be fooled, they were actually mostly Arab-AMERICANS, based in New York City. Still, their rock n' roll was as authentically "Middle Eastern" as their Turkish contemporaries. They could have held their own with the likes of Erkin Koray and Mogollar.
The Devil's Anvil got together in the happenin' mid sixties Greenwich Village scene, playing their Middle Eastern influenced music at folk cafes and rock clubs. Eventually they hooked up with classical musician-turned-rocker Felix Pappalardi (producer of Cream's Disraeli Gears, later to play alongside Leslie West in Mountain). He began playing bass with the band and eventually scored the group a record deal. The resulting album was truly one-of-a-kind and would certainly made greater impact had it not been released on the very eve of the Arab-Israeli war in 1967. Thus, we're told no New York radio stations would play it and unfortunately the album has remained an expensive collector's find until its cd reissue.
The rock contained herein is absolutely kick ass, with bluesy and impassioned Arabic vocals, electric (or at least amplified) oud, bouzouki, tamboura, durbeki as well as the usual rock suspects of (fuzz!) guitar, bass and drums. The majority of the tracks here are either rock arrangements of traditional Middle Eastern and Greek numbers or original compositions, but a couple are actually straight traditional numbers with no western instruments at all. Plus there's an excellent Middle Eastern-esque rock arangement of surf classic "Misirlou" (of course, a song with its roots originally in Greek rembetika) that's perhaps the best version ever recorded, in our humble opinion. And the record ends with a Devil's Anvil original that kinda reminds us of one of the Beatles' more Eastern-influenced tunes. This is about as good as it gets. Very, very highly recommended! Nay, ESSENTIAL.
The cd booklet of this new reish includes original album graphics along with brand new liner notes from one of the writers at Shindig magazine, and a blurb on the back that just might have been parapharased from -our- Record Of The Week review of this album.
MPEG Stream: "Wala Dai"
MPEG Stream: "Shisheler"
MPEG Stream: "Hala Laya"
MPEG Stream: "Basaha"

EAGLE TWIN The Unkindness of Crows (Southern Lord) 2lp 26.00
NOW ON VINYL!! Super deluxe double 180 gram wax, and packaged in a super deluxe full color extra heavy gatefold sleeve...
When Andee and Allan were in Austin last spring for SXSW, they stumbled into a record store (the very cool End Of An Ear) only to be unexpectedly pummelled by two scruffy dudes set up in the corner, guitar and drums, kicking up a head splitting ear shredding low end racket, that was so powerful it almost made record shopping impossible, but then who wants to record shop when you can immerse yourself in an avalanche of sound so thick and viscous that it was almost a physical presence in the room? The guy with the axe seemed familiar too, and it wasn't until afterwards that we realized it was Gentry Densley of Iceburn fame, and we had just witnessed a live performance by his new duo project, Eagle Twin!
So, here we have the full length, and it's just as dark, and heavy and sprawling as it was live, not nearly as terrifying or ear drum destroying but records rarely are. What it is, though, is HEAVY AS FUCK, downtuned and massive, if we didn't know Densley was guitar player we would have almost assumed this was another one of those rhythm section only bands (a la Om).
Not sure if we're hearing too much Iceburn in Eagle Twin, it's definitely twisted and proggy, with lurching abstract arrangements, so in that it's similar, but this is more of the new slow n' low school, a la SUNNO))), Earth, Corrupted, Moss, Bunkur, etc.
The album begins by confusing the hell out of you. Opener "In The Beginning Was The Scream" sounds like some strange doom/free jazz hybrid, or maybe like a metal version of the Stooges song "LA Blues". You might notice that the vocals flow with a similar eccentricity to someone like Attila Csihar, but more than likely, you'll be blown away by what you soon realize is Tuvan throat singing and tons of gong-laden percussion. This is some weird and intense stuff for sure, and there is a peculiar aggressiveness to the instrumentation that many doom bands unintentionally eschew by trying to be slower than everyone else. Eagle Twin understand the power of built up tension and negative space, while never neglecting to utilize a heavy groove when necessary. The subsonic distortion and raspy spoken vocals on songs like "Storytelling Of Ravens" stir up plenty of blackened negative vibes for sure, but elsewhere, like on "Crow Hymns", Eagle Twin actually rock out pretty hard with boatloads of fuzzed out harmonic distortion and some awesome tom-heavy drumming. Densley's raspy voice, which at times carries a bit of a country drawl, works perfectly on "Carry On, King Of Carrion", which blends the sounds of both early and modern day Earth with doomed out Southern rock riffage.
The vocals sort of sound like dude in Scissorfight (if anyone gives a shit), or even like Wino, the songs are surprisingly catchy at times, Southern rock sounding even here and there, but then there's also all kinds of weird exotic shit and definitely some themes that show an Eastern influence, and some incredible riffing, as Densley is a fucking shredder, and even in downtuned minimal mode, he SLAYS. This is definitely about the heaviest record you may here all year, and totally puts to shame pretty much every other heavy duo we can think of, except maybe early godheadSilo...
MPEG Stream: "In The Beginning Was The Scream"
MPEG Stream: "Murder Of..."

ENOID Ataraxiis (BlackMetal.Com) cd 13.98
We've been trying to get ANYTHING by this band, this GUY actually. A seriously sick drummer (he's been featured on SickDrummer.Com multiple times), the awesomely monickered Bornyhake, not only drums up a fucking storm, he also handles all the other instruments as well. Enoid is his one man band, but so is Borgne, and beyond that, he plays in 5 or 6 other bands, from doom to grind, but it's extreme blackness where he really excels. We'll keep trying to get some Borgne for the store, but for now at least we can extol the radness that is Enoid.
Right out of the gate, Ataraxiis explodes in a frenzy of blizzardy beastliness, furious and frenzied and frantic, soaring melodies, drumming so fast, we're thinking it might even have to be a drum machine, or he really IS a sick drummer, and while he may be Swiss, the sound is definitely Nordic, or Swedish, think 1349, or Marduk, Immortal or Satyricon even, this is super intense frostbitten blackness, relentless, sometimes the tracks breakdown into lurching grooves or pounding doom, but those moments are fleeting, it's never long before Enoid launches back into more seriously blasting black grimness. Brutal and kult, soul flaying heaviness that is definitely not for the meek. If you like it frosty and fast, grim and black, you probably can't do much better (or blacker) than this!
MPEG Stream: "By The Flames"
MPEG Stream: "The Darkening Of My Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Je Ne Regretterais Pas"

ESPERS III (Drag City) cd 14.98
It's been over three years since we've heard from this awesome Philadelphia collective, but that doesn't mean they haven't been busy. What with scoring and touring the Valerie Project (the re-imagined soundtrack to Jaromil Jires' Valerie And Her Week of Wonders), solo projects and collaborations from members Meg Baird and Helena Espvall, and focussing on Greg Weeks' psych-folk label, Language of Stone, it's amazing the band found any time to record. But they have and what's even more amazing is how great it sounds, releasing perhaps our favorite of their records. While the last record, II expanded upon the acid folk of their debut into a gauzy nocturnal medieval acid-psych, the songs on III return to sun-dappled realms, without losing any of their dark majesty. There's still a heavy British folk vibe, and Week's soaring guitar lines have lost none of their power, but the mood is more relaxed and warmer, allowing moments of seventies west-coast psych to seep through and mellow the proceedings a bit. But that doesn't mean there aren't any shadows, as Espers know how to work those magically dark undercurrents into even the brightest of songs. This is the band at the height of their power, lets hope it keeps going higher!
MPEG Stream: "Caroline"
MPEG Stream: "That Which Darkly Thrives"
MPEG Stream: "Another Moon Song"

ESPERS III (Drag City) lp 17.98
It's been over three years since we've heard from this awesome Philadelphia collective, but that doesn't mean they haven't been busy. What with scoring and touring the Valerie Project (the re-imagined soundtrack to Jaromil Jires' Valerie And Her Week of Wonders), solo projects and collaborations from members Meg Baird and Helena Espvall, and focussing on Greg Weeks' psych-folk label, Language of Stone, it's amazing the band found any time to record. But they have and what's even more amazing is how great it sounds, releasing perhaps our favorite of their records. While the last record, II expanded upon the acid folk of their debut into a gauzy nocturnal medieval acid-psych, the songs on III return to sun-dappled realms, without losing any of their dark majesty. There's still a heavy British folk vibe, and Week's soaring guitar lines have lost none of their power, but the mood is more relaxed and warmer, allowing moments of seventies west-coast psych to seep through and mellow the proceedings a bit. But that doesn't mean there aren't any shadows, as Espers know how to work those magically dark undercurrents into even the brightest of songs. This is the band at the height of their power, lets hope it keeps going higher!
MPEG Stream: "Caroline"
MPEG Stream: "That Which Darkly Thrives"
MPEG Stream: "Another Moon Song"

EXPO 70 Mother Universe Has Birthed Her Last Cosmos (Universal Tongue) 3"cd-r 9.98
What more can we say about these guys that we haven't already. Masters of divine sci-fi spacekraut dronemusic, sprawling epics that drift heavenward, guitars swirl and pulse, bass throbs and rumbles, rhythms don't pound or shuffle as much as pulse, a gloriously cosmic ur-rock that is not about rocking at all, but instead about sitting back and drifting off, letting the music lull you into a state of suspended animation, moving inward before moving outward, expanding like a new universe being born. All of the above imagery is especially apt to describe Mother Universe Has Birthed Her Last Cosmos, a one track, 20 minute space drone kraut jam from our beloved Expo 70. The main guitar part is surprisingly active, as is the bass, there's a definite groove here, the song has propulsion, and moves with purpose, the sound of a timelapse camera capturing the stars blinking out one at a time, viewed through a capsule full of bong smoke. Dreamy druggy and divine.
But it's not all drift here, about 8 or 9 minutes in, an old drum machine rears up and unfurls a looped beat, the guitars lock in, and suddenly this is some sort of transcendent drugged out hypnospace loop, which almost sounds like a skipping Hawkwind record, so completely mesmerizing and AWESOME. Eventually the drums drift off, and leave the throbbing bass and shimmering guitars to complete the journey on their own.
LIMITED TO 111 COPIES! We got 40 of those, and won't be able to get more. So get while the getting's good. And like all Universal Tongue releases, the packaging is super cool, full color inserts in little mini 5" high clear dvd sleeves, each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Mother Universe Has Birthed Her Last Cosmos"

FLAMING LIPS Embryonic (Warner Bros) cd 14.98
Okay, we love the Flaming Lips. We have for ages. We recently revisited In A Priest Driven Ambulance, Oh My Gawd!, Telepathic Surgery, and Hear It Is, and we were struck by just how awesome those records still sound, and how amazingly and brilliantly fucked up that band was, and basically still are. Every record, we were just waiting, dying to see what the band would do next, what kind of skewed pop brilliance they would cook up, or what sort of deafening noise weirdness they might smother perfect pop songs with. Live was even better. One of their early shows here, involved more Christmas lights than we had ever seen, then there was the whole Zaireeka unmixed 4cd set meant to be played simultaneously. Who would have thought that a band like that would achieve mainstream success. Who would headline Lollapalooza, Treasure Island, that they would be the kind of band your PARENTS WOULD LIKE. But they did, and we were cool with it. The Soft Bulletin was a genius record, and with the release of that record, they moved up and on. And everything they got they deserved and THEN SOME. But then a weird thing happened, they stopped experimenting so much. Sure they had strings, and unique production techniques, and live they had the big plastic ball and people in furry suits, but the records began to run together and sound the same. Still great, and by modern pop standards, plenty strange, but by FLAMING LIPS standards, they were getting closer and closer to becoming one of those bands that required the word 'old' when describing them as a band you dug. "Yeah, I was pretty into OLD Flaming Lips".
So we weren't all that hopeful about this new record, even when we heard rumblings of how weird it was, we figured it was just mainstream pop weird, not Flaming Lips weird. But whattayaknow? It is weird. FLAMING LIPS WEIRD! And wonderful, and twisted, still poppy and sort of catchy, but way more NOT. In some ways, it seems like commercial suicide. A band that popular, purposefully making a record, that most normal festival goers would NEVER blast in their SUV on the way to Whole Foods. But fuck it, if anyone can pull it off, and come out the other side smelling like roses, it's the Lips. Listening to Embryonic, it's exciting to think about these obtuse fractured jams blasting through the same PA as Kanye or Lady GaGa. And obtuse and fractured they are. Tripped out, druggy, psychedelic, rhythmic and layered. effects everywhere, sounds careening all over the stereo field, vocals distorted, guitars twisted and mangled, chiming and screaming and buzzing, the vocals more mantra like than ever. Sure it's not like the old OLD record, but hell c'mon, these guys are in their 40s and 50s, and their making some seriously challenging freaky avant space rock drone pop what-the-fuck.
But don't get us wrong, there's plenty of prettiness, lovely melodies, lilting vocals, warm whirring instrumentation, but it's surrounded on all sides, by strange samples, fuzzed out bass lines, warbly synths, long stretches of staticky drift, super distorted drums, wild psychedelic guitar freakouts, it's the kind of record, that will most likely deter plenty of casual listeners, but those who dig deep. let the sounds wash over them, who get lost with the band, in whatever fucked up mysterious world music like this exists in, well, then, those folks are the chosen ones, and will discover something magical, melodic and fucking genius.
MPEG Stream: "The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Aquarius Sabotage"
MPEG Stream: "Powerless"
MPEG Stream: "Worm Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Watching The Planets"

FUCK BUTTONS Tarot Sport (All Tomorrows Parties) cd 14.98
The first Fuck Buttons record, Street Horrrsing, was a bright colorful explosion of sound, we described it as "massive super distorted heavy electronic drone fuzz pop" and "energetically exotic and hypnotically repetitive and just chock full of sheer noise fuzz bliss, bulldozering over buried melodies, tribal weirdness, and equally distorted screaming vocals". Basically it was a noisy fucked up head spinning chunk of noise rock bliss pop infused with all manner of electronics.
On Tarot Sport, the equation has been flipped, if anything this is an electronic record, heck, a techno record, that just so happens to be filtered through some twisted noise rock, lo-fi punk rock lens. Like Daft Punk for the noise rock set, these extended jams sound like some unholy collision between the Boredoms, Gang Gang Dance, Black Dice and the Basement Jaxx, the synths are throbbing and thick and buzzy, the beats bounce and pound and skitter and slip from lurching stutter to house-y pound to groovy lope, while all around these various sounds is wrapped a warm gauzy layer of M83 like fuzz, giving the whole record a super dreamlike almost eighties feel. "Space Mountain" sounds like M83 gone techno and then nabbed for a crucial scene in a remake of Sixteen Candles, "Flight Of The Feathered Serpent" is another one that has futuristic eighties jam written all over it, hazy and druggy, washed out and shimmery, the beats big and block rockin', with a gorgeously almost Jesu sounding second half, albeit way poppier.
The first half of the record though, starting with the single "Surf Solar" is more on the Daft Punk side of things, still fuzzy and noisy and blissed out but way more techno. "Rough Steez" might be the weirdest of the bunch, with its super buzzy jagged fuzz bass, stuttery clipped rhythms, and squealing glitchy electronics, although there's plenty of fuzzy dreaminess creeping in already.
This is one of those rare records that pretty much everybody here loves, it's groovy, noisy, fuzzy, druggy, the beats are bad ass, the atmosphere is hazy and eighties, and it's all wrapped up into one practically perfect set of future summer retro noise rock techno electronic jams. This is quickly turning into one of our new favorites...
MPEG Stream: "Surf Solar"
MPEG Stream: "Rough Steez"
MPEG Stream: "Olympians"

FUCK BUTTONS Tarot Sport (All Tomorrows Parties) lp 21.00
The first Fuck Buttons record, Street Horrrsing, was a bright colorful explosion of sound, we described it as "massive super distorted heavy electronic drone fuzz pop" and "energetically exotic and hypnotically repetitive and just chock full of sheer noise fuzz bliss, bulldozering over buried melodies, tribal weirdness, and equally distorted screaming vocals". Basically it was a noisy fucked up head spinning chunk of noise rock bliss pop infused with all manner of electronics.
On Tarot Sport, the equation has been flipped, if anything this is an electronic record, heck, a techno record, that just so happens to be filtered through some twisted noise rock, lo-fi punk rock lens. Like Daft Punk for the noise rock set, these extended jams sound like some unholy collision between the Boredoms, Gang Gang Dance, Black Dice and the Basement Jaxx, the synths are throbbing and thick and buzzy, the beats bounce and pound and skitter and slip from lurching stutter to house-y pound to groovy lope, while all around these various sounds is wrapped a warm gauzy layer of M83 like fuzz, giving the whole record a super dreamlike almost eighties feel. "Space Mountain" sounds like M83 gone techno and then nabbed for a crucial scene in a remake of Sixteen Candles, "Flight Of The Feathered Serpent" is another one that has futuristic eighties jam written all over it, hazy and druggy, washed out and shimmery, the beats big and block rockin', with a gorgeously almost Jesu sounding second half, albeit way poppier.
The first half of the record though, starting with the single "Surf Solar" is more on the Daft Punk side of things, still fuzzy and noisy and blissed out but way more techno. "Rough Steez" might be the weirdest of the bunch, with its super buzzy jagged fuzz bass, stuttery clipped rhythms, and squealing glitchy electronics, although there's plenty of fuzzy dreaminess creeping in already.
This is one of those rare records that pretty much everybody here loves, it's groovy, noisy, fuzzy, druggy, the beats are bad ass, the atmosphere is hazy and eighties, and it's all wrapped up into one practically perfect set of future summer retro noise rock techno electronic jams. This is quickly turning into one of our new favorites...
MPEG Stream: "Surf Solar"
MPEG Stream: "Rough Steez"
MPEG Stream: "Olympians"

GOLIGHTLY, HOLLY & THE BROKEOFFS Devil Do (Transdreamer) cd ep 6.98
Smoking new ep from one of our favorite strong and saucy songstresses Holy Golightly along with The Brokeoffs, her backup band who joined forces with her a couple years ago, and are proving to have the same kind of spicy demeanor as her former co-conspirator Billy Childish. Deliciously twangy, sassy and packing a serious wallop, Devil Do is reminding us all over again why we fell so hard for Miss Golightly all those years ago. Each of the four tracks here are totally great but the real stand out and wonderful oddball of the bunch is the dark and brooding closer "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo" which almost sounds like what might happen if Golightly lent her voice to a record by Earth! We are keeping are fingers crossed for more songs in this direction, but truly whatever Holly does it's always damn fine!
MPEG Stream: "Devil Do"
MPEG Stream: "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo"

GROUP BOMBINO Guitars From Agadez Vol. 2 (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
Hope you didn't panic when the super limited vinyl version of this amazing record sold out. We're never sure if the SF lps will come out on cd, so far they all have, but maybe those Sublime Frequencies guys just like to keep us guessing. Anyway, for those of you who did somehow miss out on this, or did get the lp and want the cd too, it's now finally available as a cd! And is still, and again, absolutely essential...
Yet another new sonic document from the mighty Sublime Frequencies, this one a continuation of sorts, again exploring the world of Tuareg guitar music from Agadez in Niger, first explored on the amazing Group Inerane release a while back. And strangely enough, both band share members, so folks who loved the Group Inerane will likely love this too.
The music scene in Agadez is unique in many ways, but perhaps the strangest element is the fact that none of the bands can afford to own their own instruments, there is one PA and one set of amps that get passed from show to show, and guitars are borrowed and lent out, as are band members, with musicians joining different groups as they are available. Remarkably, while the sounds are indeed similar, they are also quite unique.
Group Bombino is headed up by 28 year old Oumara Almoctar, aka Bombino, who was inspired by more well known Tuareg musicians like Tinariwen and Ali Farka Toure to create his own music and to continue to spread the sounds and spirit of Tuareg and Agadez.
So here we have the first proper worldwide release by Bombino and his group, and it's gorgeous. Two distinct sides, the A side features Bombino's "dry" guitar sound, sort of acoustic, the guitars, spidery and slinky, the percussion simple and spare, hand claps, hand drums, the vocals lilting and emotional, all very repetitive and hypnotic, the vocals chantlike over the propulsive rhythms and the almost looped sounding guitar parts.
The flip side features Group Bombino plugging in and letting loose, the root sound is quite similar, but the guitars buzz and wail, chugging out those hypnotic riffs, but also spiralling out into wild leads, tangled melodies, the drums a bit hard, the vocals sitting further back in the mix, ebullient and joyous, but not without tension and emotion and some subtle sorrow and anger, this is after all the sounds or rebellion and revolution, an outlet for the frustration at the unrest and upheaval in Niger and Agadez. So fantastic.
As with pretty much everything Sublime Frequencies, ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED, and for sure, anyone who dug the Group Inerane (a past Record Of The Week), will go crazy for Group Bombino as well!
MPEG Stream: "Tenere"
MPEG Stream: "Imuhar"
MPEG Stream: "Boghassa"
MPEG Stream: "Imouhare"

GROUP DOUEH Treeg Salaam (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
Treeg Salaam came out on vinyl a while back, but disappeared so quickly, we never had enough to review, and before we knew it, it was out of print. So we waited and waited patiently, hoping, fingers crossed, that this too would get released as a cd and we're happy to report it finally has!
If you remember, last year we made Group Doueh's Guitar Music From The Western Sahara our Record Of The Week, and folks went crazy for it, ourselves included. A dizzying blast of lo-fi electric guitar driven rhythmic African folk, clattery homemade percussion, jubilant vocalizing, repetitive and melodic and hypnotic, and super rocking.
This latest collection is culled from the group's personal cassette archive, and definitely displays all the sides of this versatile group.
The record opener is all simple percussion, warbly wah guitar, keening vocals, group background harmonies that follow the guitar melody, mantra like and completely mesmerizing. But it's the second track where the group lets loose, with super distorted tinny guitar, whipping up a wild buzzy squall, the rhythms relentless and intense, the vocals a wild smattering of hoots and hollers, the guitar part super crunchy, growing ever more intense as the track builds to a frenzied coda before finally fading out.
The next track features some incredible, strangely effected guitar lines, all woozy and warped, super fast picking creates a twisted tremolo sound, male and female vocals intertwined into haunting harmonies, very intense and emotional, draped over that main minor key guitar part. The next track is another heavy guitar jam, the vocals nearly buried by the chunky effected riffing, all muffled and murky, but super driving and intense and wild and kick ass, with a bad ass female vocal breakdown about halfway through, totally soaring and soulful. Group Doueh must be the ultimate party band, these recordings sound incredible, and we can only imagine it sounded even better being there.
Finally, the record closes with the nearly 20 minute "Tazit Kalifa" which begins very raga like, with mumbled electric guitar, over buzzing one string drones, the vocals minimal, almost spoken, simple drums surface part way through, giving the track a little groove, but the guitars continue to buzz and drone, the vocals chanting right along, absolute African raga drone bliss. So great! And once again absolutely and utterly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Min Binat Omum"
MPEG Stream: "Ragsa Jaguar"
MPEG Stream: "Beatte Harab"

HARDAL Nasil? Ne Zaman (Shadoks) cd 17.98
What do you think, is it about time for another Turkish psych sensation 'round these parts? Hardal fits right in with Shadoks' previous reissues of Istanbul-based "Anatolian rock" bands we've loved, like Bunalim and Edip Akbayram, even though the date on this is a bit later than those. Hardal (featuring members of Erkin Koray's Underground 4 band) formed in 1976, releasing this, their debut album, in 1980. Maybe a little disco has infiltrated their sound, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Kitschy '70s cop show synths, acid rock guitar solos, and '60s psych-pop catchiness are all also in the mix.
Just listen to the first track, the super groovy, yet poppy "Bir Yagmur Masali" and tell us you're not hooked. It's impossible to resist that groove! They should have added this to the Psych Funk 101 curriculum (that comp we reviewed last list)! Reminds us a bit of South Korea's great San Ul Lim, who were of similar style, and vintage.
Soulful male vocals are contrasted with fuzzed out, funky bass. Whistling synth lines and cinematically wordless female vocals also adorn these songs. Hardal definitely have a typically romantic vibe derived from the traditional folk music of their homeland, but even at its mellowest, some tasty fuzz or badass groove is never that far away.
We don't know what Hardal means, but the album title Nasil? Ne Zaman? apparently translates as How? When? If the question involves getting down to some killer Turkish tuneage, the answer is: this is how, and the time is now!!
And as usual with Shadoks, the cd booklet provides informative liner notes, color photos, and press clippings.
MPEG Stream: "Bir Yagmur Masali"
MPEG Stream: "Unuttum "
MPEG Stream: "Sen Gittin Diye"

HARMONIA & ENO '76 Tracks And Traces (Gronland) cd 15.98
Well, it's about time that this artifact showed itself again, what with all the Cluster, Kluster, Michael Rother, Kraftwerk, and Fripp & Eno reissues popping up all over the place, finally we have this last piece of the Harmonia puzzle, and it's never sounded better! Tracks and Traces is one of those curious krautrock documents, mainly because it was recorded in 1976, but never released until the late nineties. Its late release was always rather inexplicable, as there were no liner notes, but with this new reissue that bookends the original release with three previously unreleased bonus tracks and poetically expository liner notes, its former relegation as an "odds and sods" collection of sketches, can with all confidence be considered now to be one of the great lost krautrock records! If you bought this when it was first released, you may need to buy it again for the extra tracks that change the whole flow and feel of the album considerably.
Harmonia as a group was always meant to be temporary. When Eno went to see them live in 1974, he ended up on stage with them and was invited to come out to Forst to experience Moebius and Roedellius's placid countryside studio first hand. But it took Eno two years to make good on that invitation, and by then Harmonia had essentially disbanded. Michael Rother was working on his first solo material (Flammende Herzen), as was Roedelius (Durch Die Wuste), while Moebius was working on the Liliental sessions. But they were all there in Forst for eleven days, experiencing the wind, river, trees and sun, casually improvising music, but really just treating the sounds they made as a meditation on process and time together without a goal to make a product. Eno was eventually called away by Bowie to work on Low, and the recordings of their time together lay dormant for two decades.
It's easy to think that without the benefit of returning to the original recordings for overdubs, that these might be shrugged off as sketches, but the starker quality of these recordings are really what set them apart from the pastoral sweetness of the Cluster & Eno collaborations, and give them a distinctive expansiveness into the more shadowy and vague corners of their sound. Lots of ideas are explored, from rockish extrapolations, and baroque dirges to sinister and angular abstractions (Eno even sings on one track) but it never feels forced or indulgent. The sound just flows naturally. Essential!
MPEG Stream: "Vamos Companeros"
MPEG Stream: "By The Riverside"
MPEG Stream: "Weird Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Les Demoiselles"

HARRISON, MICHAEL Revelation (Cantaloupe) cd 17.98
My God, this release has been blowing our minds! A 72 minute solo piano epic by this protege of LaMonte Young and disciple of the late Pandit Pran Nath, Michael Harrison. Michael Harrison is probably not as well known of the second generation minimalist composers after Terry Riley, Philip Glass and Charlemagne Palestine, but his mastery of Indian Classical Musical and his design and invention of the harmonic piano, an extensively modified grand piano with the ability to alternate between two different tunings to play 24 notes per octave on a conventional keyboard, has earned him much respect in new music circles. Revelation is arguably his master work, utilizing the tuning system of 'just intonation' to conjure beautifully melodic and mesmerizing tonal clusters of sound. Just intonation is, on the basic level, any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of whole numbers. While we here are not completely able to wrap our heads around the theory behind the Pythagorean principles of harmonic resonance, the tones in the scales applied here are far from conventional, and the shifting patterns of harmonic overtones as they bounce against each other create oddly-tuned and haunting harmonies. Revelation starts deliberately slow. The first track, "Revealing The Tones" is just that taking the time to visit each note than a pairing of notes, then finally triads. But it's not all just about academics, some tracks evoke the mysteries of night or desert solitude, creating lilting passages of melody similar in feel to Harold Budd's best work. Some use percussive Eastern scales as if the piano was being played as a gamelan. But with each track, the beauty of the tones gains in intensity so that by the finale, it sounds like three pianos are being played in an almost Lubomyr Melnyk-like technique of 'continuous music', which is incredible because in fact no effects or overdubs were used in the recording. It's been a while since we were blown away by a contemporary recording of minimalist composition, and any fans of any of the folks mentioned above, should definitely check this out!
MPEG Stream: "Night Vigil"
MPEG Stream: "Tone Cloud II"
MPEG Stream: "Tone Cloud IV"

HAT The Demise Of Mankind (Antichristian Front / Abyss) cd 14.98
One of the joys of metal records, black metal records in particular, is unravelling the mystery of the logo, because even the most logo savvy among us has stumbled across a label that was just too gnarled to decode. So we were pretty excited by this record, part of the mystery lay in the fact that it was a black logo, on a nearly black background, but the logo itself was also super complex, each letter, a branch spouting hundreds of tiny tendrils, the letterforms mere bulky blurs, only three letters though, so we gave it a try, and seemed to suss it out, but figured it couldn't be right. That's an H, and the next letter looks like an A, and the third and final letter is... a... T? So that spells HAT? This thrashing blackened grim horde spewing this awesome frosty Nordic buzz is called Hat? Then we were imagining a huge corpsepainted creature growling into a microphone "Weeeeeee are calllllled.... HAT". Pretty funny. We're fairly sure Hat must be Norwegian for hate or something similar, and the band probably never thought about the meaning in English, but we can't help but be ticked by a buzzing blast like this being perpetrated by a band called Hat.
Chapeau themed monicker aside, this band is seriously fierce and grim, slipping from total classic old school style Nordic blasting blackness, a la Satyricon, Immortal, Emperor, to more midtempo blackened grooves like Khold. Some of the songs are laced with recordings of clanking chains, trudging footsteps (on the way to the gallows it sounds like), explosions and gunfire, but the music is plenty violent and furious all on its own. The guitar sound is incredible, thick and ultra buzzy, the vocals are sick and harsh and hellish. the drumming simple but powerful, the melodies epic, the song structures not super complex, instead super buzzy and hypnotic. Seriously excellent classic Norwegian blackness, by the grim kvlt horde known simply as... HAT.
MPEG Stream: "Guds Skitne Avkom"
MPEG Stream: "Eternal Damnation Of The Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Schadenfreude"

HEY COLOSSUS VS DETHSCALATOR split (Black Labs) lp 16.98
Latest eruption of doom-sludge-drone heaviness from UK kill team Hey Colossus, here teamed up with the awesomely named Dethscalator, but more on them in a second.
Hey Colossus continue to expand their epic dirge space rock, with three sprawling slow-jams, that oozes from slow burning drones, to lurching stumbling blackened crush, to metallic krautrock and back again, rumbling drones erupt into looped sounding riff heavy sludge workouts, the vocals a hellish bellow, feedback swirling all over the place, the band a beast, a lumbering sonic juggernaut, downtuned and crushing, but spaced out and psychedelic too. Folks into Shit And Shine might want to give these guys a try, the same sort of noise drenched fucked up mantra like mesmerizing heaviness. Amidst all that heaviness, the band do unwind into hypnotic post/space rock jams, simple and rhythmic, under a haze of murky buzz and jagged skree, but seem to eventually explode into either a squall of melting lysergic effects drenched freakout, or pounding black murk slow motion metal crush. We dig it either way!
Which brings us to Dethscalator, who we liked already, cuz, well, they're called Dethscalator, we're like that. Thankfully the sound lives up to the name, a gnarled blend of Gore like repetitive heaviness, and lo-slung Jesus Lizard like noise rock, the vocals especially, a dead ringer for David Yow, all scowly and sort of sung / spoken, and super distorted, with the band swinging all downtuned and seasick, until they lock into bursts of cyclical riffage, that sound almost looped, occasionally lifting off into some serious space rock territory, before falling back into another stretch of woozy metallic noise rock, culminating in the weird brooding noise rock slowjam that ends the record, murky and washed out and gloomy, weirdly melodic and super dark and creepy. Rad rad rad. Definitely need more Dethscalator in our lives, and heck more Hey Colossus while we're at it!
Features some awesomely fucked up and garish (and badly photoshopped) cover art, one eyed creep and headless biker anyone??

HIDDEN CAMERAS Origin: Orphans (Arts & Crafts) cd 14.98
Listed the vinyl last time, now the cds are back in, yay. We've been so excited for this one, because when it comes to smart, infectious records that you listen to over and over and memorize every lyric and melody, it doesn't get much better or more rewarding then the Hidden Cameras. Origin: Orphans finds the band with a new level of confidence and definitely displays shows the range they've developed from their trademark peppy and catchy anthem like zingers to more subdued and brooding mopers that unfold with a richness that gives the record a weight and gravitas that we've really been appreciating, borne of song writing and arrangements that are the most fully realized of their career. We're always reminded of John Cale's brilliant album Paris 1919 when we listen to the Hidden Cameras as they tap into the same kind of swirling and infectious melody, which manage to be both sophisticated and so damn pleasing. We also hear nice hints of Arthur Russell, Paul Simon (in a good way!), Magnetic Fields, and Robert Wyatt when he was a young buck back in the day. With all the success Grizzly Bear has received this year, we hope Hidden Cameras get some of that same recognition because they've crafted another of the best pop albums of the year!
MPEG Stream: "In The NA"
MPEG Stream: "Do I Belong?"
MPEG Stream: "The Little Bit"

HYPOTHERMIA Kold (Turannum) lp 17.98
This long out of print slab of frosty jangly depressive buzz, available again, now on vinyl for the first time, housed in a super fancy full color gatefold, with full color printed inner sleeves and a cool mini-poster, pressed on nice thick 180 gram vinyl too of course!!
There couldn't be a more appropriate name for this Swedish outfit, as it's unlikely you'll ever hear anything colder or frostier. This is harsh and frostbitten, depressive and miserable black metal for sure, predating the group's eventual shift to a sound more jangly and spacious, although within Kold's grimnity, lurk moments that certainly foreshadow that future shift.
Kold is full length number two from Hypothermia, after their Veins debut, and Kold takes Hypothermia's monochromatic miserablism a step further, two tracks, two riffs, okay, maybe four at the most, one track twenty seven minutes long, the other nineteen, each one a loping midtempo buzz, the drums a relentless plod, the guitar a buzz so blurry and indistinct it almost sounds like a drone, and the vocals, well, as anguished and tortured as they were on Veins, they're even more strangled and bizarre here, somewhere between an Orcish death rattle and some sort of beast vomiting up its last meal, sometimes mumbling in a strange mewling grunt, other times a leather lunged glass throated growl, you can almost feel the blood and spittle. But it's the perfect compliment to the music. Hateful, sorrowful, suicidal, depressive, the sound of Kold is just that, so cold and lonely, emotional and intense. About three quarters of the way through the first track, the distorted guitar drops out leaving just a jangly clean guitar, drums and vocals, which is definitely unexpected, but ends up sounding strangely emotionally charged. Soon the vocals drop out too and it's just drums and clean guitar and it almost sounds like some outsider bedroom indie rock, before the buzz kicks back in and the track unwinds in a Burzumic blaze of frosty buzz.
The second track may be even weirder, a blown out buzzy riff, and even doomier rhythmic plod, and the vocals are completely unhinged, falsetto screams, what sounds like that weird breathing-in-backwards singing, growling and grunting and shrieking and wailing hysterically, all over a surprisingly lilting minor key dirge, buzzing and droning, epic yet surprisingly melodic, with another surprise right at the end, a three minute clean-guitar and drum coda, simple garage-y drumming, sort of shuffling and crashing beneath some truly moody jangly strum.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Svag Fysisk Lusta"
MPEG Stream: "Svartade Passager"

INCA ORE Silver Sea Surfer School (Not Not Fun) lp 16.98
First full length from Inca Ore since the awesome Birthday Of Bless You (not counting a mess of collaborations and splits), and it's more of what we've come to love about Eva Ore's mysterious world of sound. Like Grouper, Inca Ore is definitely vocal based, a breathless ethereal mumbly croon, often heavily effected, or buried beneath a wash of swirling layered soft noise, but where Grouper is murky, Inca Ore is more noisy, her tools are high end to Grouper's low end, a delicate crystalline drift, all rounded whistle like tones, and whispered vocals, will morph into a swirling squall of crunch and skree, the vocals still dreamy and angelic, but wrapped in strange clattery rhythms, fuzzy distortion, streaks of feedback, and a thick lo-fi haze, only to slip seamlessly back into another stretch of high end shimmer, a soft cacophony of muted music box melodies, chiming and reverberating, the vocals so processed, they blend into the field of bells and tones.
And so it goes, every song a glorious, gauzy world of delicate sparkling glimmer set amidst slowly drifting clouds of buzz and hiss, soft thrumming percussion, hushed thrum, and dreamy, druggy, softly psychedelic drone drift ambient pop. So lovely.

KAITO Trust (Kompakt) cd 15.98
Another winner from Kompakt, made even more of a winner in that like much of Kompakt's output, it is contributing to the gradual conversion of the techno hating holdouts around here. Trust, the latest disc from Japanese producer Hiroshi Watanabe aka Kaito, takes the trancey house sounds of his past releases, and infuses a bit more of the Pop Ambient the Kompakt is also known for. Lots of swooshing shimmer, with warm waves of lush whirr, draped over lilting piano melodies. Skittery 4/4 rhythms, and hazy streaks of high end M83 style synths wrapped around thumping grooves and tinkling melodies. "Nothing Could Be More Peaceful" might be our favorite, super murky and ultra dreamy and pastoral, a sort of Chain Reaction meets Pop Ambient sound, that slowly builds to something more trancey and propulsive.
This is definitely not a record for folks who don't already dig techno, it's not an ideal gateway record, it's not super weird or avant or abstract, it's pretty housey, definitely trancey, there are some warm warped and murky moments, but the core of the record is something much more sleek and dancefloor ready, and definitely more classically techno. So if you dig that sort of thing, odds are this will hit the spot, and if you're new to all this techno stuff and are looking for a place to start, this would definitely be a good one to try.
MPEG Stream: "And That Was The Way"
MPEG Stream: "Rainbow Circles"
MPEG Stream: "Trust"

KARUNA KHYAL Alomoni 1985 (Phoenix) cd 17.98
So imagine you're a longhaired Japanese hippy freak in the mid-'70s. You've been grooving to the cosmic sounds coming out of Germany on import LPs for the past few years, as well as digging the homegrown stuff too. Taj Mahal Travellers, Foodbrain, Speed Glue & Shinki, Magical Power Mako, yeah. But now you're looking for something even MORE potent. And primitive. And peculiar. Thankfully, on a visit to the Tokyo equivalent of Aquarius Records, you discover this release by a tiny Osaka based record label called Voice. And you, the jaded Japanese hippy, once again your mind is blown!
And thankfully for those of us not lucky enough to be born Japanese hippies in the '70s, this mind-blowingness has now been reissued on cd by Phoenix, joining that label's reissue roster of other crucial Japanese '70s prog/psych like Flower Travellin' Band's Satori and The Far East Family Band's Nipponjin (reviewed here last list). This one, if you're curious, earned the 19th spot on the Top 50 list found in Julian Cope's book Japrocksampler.
It's record by a mysterious outfit known as Karuna Khyal, entitled Alomoni 1985. We're not sure why it's called that, in fact, we're not sure of much about this, not even the year it was first released ('75? '76?), except that it's freakin' far out and totally amazing. And that they're probably the same folks who recorded another awesome album under the name Brast Burn, that we assume Phoenix will also get around to reissuing (they'd both been previously put out on cd some years ago by Paradigm Disc, that's how come we're familiar with them, but those reissues are long gone).
It consists of two side-long tracks, each around 24 minutes of hard to describe insanity. The first one starts off like some sort of krautrock meets Native American pow-wow, stoned vocal chant accompanied by harmonica blowing and slide guitar, flowing into a more murky zone of Can-like groove, with relaxed, rhythmic percolations from hand percussion, caressed by free improv piping. Then about half-way through the track, it takes a plunge into proto-isolationist drones and distortion, with backwards tape manipulations and echoing FX... later still, the throbbing, nodding pulse is adorned by more mumbled Beefheartian blues babble. By the end of the track, it's a looping phantasmagoria of voice, electronics, harmonica, like a backporch Philip Jeck jam! Ok?
Then track two begins. Even further out, in a black void... a beat starts... steady... then it quickens, slows, stops and starts again amidst a sinister swooshing swirl of disembodied voices and electronic detritus. Wow. Weird. Bad trip territory! It builds and builds, with kazoo-like sounds buzzing and blapping over a repetitive martial rhythm violently strummed or drummed on some sort of distended, elastic instrument, a bass heavy chunk-chunk-chunk drilling deep like a trepanist's tool, through your skull into your soon to be free brain. Eventually it morphs into twisted harmonica-blowing jam, hypnotic and disturbed, voices hooting and mewling and laughing and mantrically chanting... The second half of this track is total bedlam, but still utterly hypnotic.
Good grief! We have to assume the Boredoms are familiar with this record. And doubtless Kawabata Makoto would give his left arm, or even his beard, to get his Acid Mothers Temple to sound this far out.
Limited edition of 1000 copies, in a cardstock "wallet" sleeve like the label's other releases.
MPEG Stream: "track 1 "
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

KRAFTWERK Autobahn (Kling Klang / Astralwerks) cd 17.98
It's about time. Dusseldorf's most famous export, the Godfathers of electronic pop music, Kraftwerk, finally see their classic albums remastered and reissued for the 21st century (although, unfortunately, not yet their EARLIEST classics, the ones with the traffic cone covers). Given the group's notoriety for demanding nothing but absolute perfection, you can safely bet that these sound AMAZING after years of tireless mixing and mastering in Kling-Klang studios. That's probably the main selling point here, as Kraftwerk was never really a "bonus material" kind of band, and there is none of that here; if it was released, it pretty much meant it was labored upon until being deemed suitable for public exposure. These reissues have also got some pretty fancy expanded artwork, with simple but bold slip covers housing the actual cds. Of course, if you don't already have these albums in some form or another, you should probably do yourself a favor and purchase every single one of them immediately.
Autobahn was originally released in 1974, and it was in most cases the band's introduction to the rest of the world with the surprise hit single of the title track, edited down significantly for airplay. It was also the point where Kraftwerk began to combine a classic pop approach with their intense Teutonic experimentation (which remains considerable here). What was seen by some people in the mid-1970s as somewhat of a novelty (which is total bullshit, but it was the '70s...), however, laid the foundation for one of the most innovative music groups to ever exist. Clocking in at almost 23 minutes, "Autobahn" may be one of the most evocative songs ever, especially considering how minimal it really is. Synthesizers give you the impression of traveling throughout Germany by car, through many different environments and observational states, as the vocal melody classically apes the Beach Boys "Fun, Fun, Fun". The song also marked the beginning of the band's reliance on vocoders and drum machines, which would from this point forward would play an integral role in defining Kraftwerk. The other songs here retain many of the sonic qualities of earlier Kraftwerk, but it's now plainly apparent where things are heading: Pop Immortality!
Oh, and a note to vinyl obsessives, these reissues will be coming out in that format next month, we're told!
MPEG Stream: "Autobahn (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Autobahn (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Kometenmelodie 1"

KRAFTWERK Radio-Activity (Kling Klang / Astralwerks) cd 17.98
It's about time. Dusseldorf's most famous export, the Godfathers of electronic pop music, Kraftwerk, finally see their classic albums remastered and reissued for the 21st century (although, unfortunately, not yet their EARLIEST classics, the ones with the traffic cone covers). Given the group's notoriety for demanding nothing but absolute perfection, you can safely bet that these sound AMAZING after years of tireless mixing and mastering in Kling-Klang studios. That's probably the main selling point here, as Kraftwerk was never really a "bonus material" kind of band, and there is none of that here; if it was released, it pretty much meant it was labored upon until being deemed suitable for public exposure. These reissues have also got some pretty fancy expanded artwork, with simple but bold slip covers housing the actual cds. Of course, if you don't already have these albums in some form or another, you should probably do yourself a favor and purchase every single one of them immediately.
1975's Radio-Activity is the first album where Kraftwerk REALLY became Kraftwerk as history knows them. It introduced their classic lineup and did away all acoustic instrumentation (believe it or not, there were actually some guitars on Autobahn), and is the perfect precursor to Trans Europe Express, arguably their finest moment. Like all Kraftwerk albums, this one is highly conceptual, with a dual emphasis on radio-activity from a scientific standpoint AND the emergence of the new(ish) culture based around the radio. How Kraftwerkian of them. Even with its moments of darkness, Radio-Activity may also be one of Kraftwerk's most "fun" albums, with the joyful pop propulsion of "Airwaves" and the playful minimalism of "Transistor". Then there is the title track, a masterpiece of slowly brooding German melancholy if there ever was one. This is the album where the boys truly found themselves able to consolidate their more experimental tendencies into a solidly pop format, resulting in some of the most imaginative and original music, well, EVER. It's strange that as the group became more poppy, they also became weirder and developed a sound that was pretty much unprecedented. But hey, that's how Kraftwerk does things.
Oh, and a note to vinyl obsessives, these reissues will be coming out in that format next month, we're told!

KRAFTWERK The Man-Machine (Kling Klang / Astralwerks) cd 17.98
It's about time. Dusseldorf's most famous export, the Godfathers of electronic pop music, Kraftwerk, finally see their classic albums remastered and reissued for the 21st century (although, unfortunately, not yet their EARLIEST classics, the ones with the traffic cone covers). Given the group's notoriety for demanding nothing but absolute perfection, you can safely bet that these sound AMAZING after years of tireless mixing and mastering in Kling-Klang studios. That's probably the main selling point here, as Kraftwerk was never really a "bonus material" kind of band, and there is none of that here; if it was released, it pretty much meant it was labored upon until being deemed suitable for public exposure. These reissues have also got some pretty fancy expanded artwork, with simple but bold slip covers housing the actual cds. Of course, if you don't already have these albums in some form or another, you should probably do yourself a favor and purchase every single one of them immediately.
The Man-Machine was originally released in 1978, a year after the artistic and commercial triumph of Trans-Europe Express. Obviously there was a lot to live up to following TEE, and Kraftwerk had little difficulty doing so. The Man Machine is likewise a genre-defining masterpiece, containing at least two of their most well known songs with "The Robots" and "The Model". It also features one of their strangely overlooked songs, the too-awesome-for-words "Spacelab". The cold, mechanical approach Kraftwerk had been striving for is perfected on this record, also expertly conveyed from a visual standpoint on the cover, where the group appears all angular and unsmiling in their matching red shirt/black tie getup. It's pretty crazy to imagine the reaction this must have received right in the middle of the punk explosion. As the rest of the world reveled in sloppy, wide-eyed rock n' roll, Kraftwerk became more precise and jettisoned the most recognizable traces of human emotion usually reserved for the pop market. Still, though the most noteworthy traits here bring to mind a glum, dystopian future, like on the title track and the ominous "Metropolis", there is also a good deal of humor and an implied human warmth, as Kraftwerk themselves, more than anything, take the role of detached observers in a world that defines itself more and more through technological progress. Sound familiar?
Oh, and a note to vinyl obsessives, these reissues will be coming out in that format next month, we're told!
MPEG Stream: "Spacelab"
MPEG Stream: "Metropolis"
MPEG Stream: "Neon Lights"

KRYPTIC MINDS One Of Us (Swamp 81) cd 16.98
It's a little frustrating to be so far removed from the epicenter of a music we're fairly obsessed with. Very little dubstep and grime makes it across the Atlantic, and much of the stuff that does is the cheesier more commercial stuff, the harder underground ultra dark stuff, seems to be harder to track down. But every once in a while, one of those dark sinister discs makes it over here, and it's all we can do to resist listening to nothing else. But we don't actually resist all that much, so this debut full length from Kryptic Minds, the first release on Loefah's Swamp 81 label, has been pretty much on constant rotation, especially in the car, cuz with a record like this, even the crappiest stereo sounds like a boomin' system.
This is our favorite kind of dubstep, super dubbed out and skeletal, no extraneous synth swooshes, or soulful female vox, just beats, and bass, and the bass is fuzzy and blown out, shifting from deep pulse to warbly buzz, the drums, skittery and spaced out, almost like a jungle record played at 16 rpm. And what little musical accompaniment there is, besides the bass, is all low end and rumble, haunting and ominous, the melodies kept to a minimum, just rhythm and sound, and it sounds so so awesome, low slung, deeeep and groovy. Another killer dubstep fix, definitely enough to satisfy our jones, at least for now...
MPEG Stream: "One Of Us"
MPEG Stream: "Secure Lost"
MPEG Stream: "Dissolved"

KYLA Into The Depths (Turannum) 7" 7.98
This brand new 7" from Swedish depressive black metaller Kyla sounds exactly how you might expect, considering the man behind Kyla is also responsible for the equally black and depressive Hypothermia, as well as counting himself a member of damaged black metal pop weirdos Lifelover.
Kyla traffic in a sound we love, a woozy, super distorted, melancholic, minor key buzz, which begins all warbly and minimal before giving way to a mesmerizing trancelike not-quite-blast. The vocals are howled and anguished and echo drenched and nearly hysterical sounding at points, but they surface only here and there, leaving most of the record to pound out a hypnotic blackened dirge. The guitars are downtuned and almost sludgey sounding in tone, the drums muffled enough to blend in with the blurred guitars and rumbling low end, the B-side has a weird pop vibe running through it, and a killer main melody, reminding us big time of Lifelover, but the vocals are even more unhinged, exploding in squalls of terrifying shriek.
Pressed on ultra thick vinyl, housed in super striking black and white sleeves, and of course VERY LIMITED!

LAZERCROTCH Nugut! / Black Bugs Bleed Black Blood (Poisonous Gases) 7" 5.98
Skweee! We've explained skweee before, you know it's an infectious and sometimes silly electronic music subgenre, an 8-bit obsessed video gamey sort of instrumental hiphop/electro music, coming from Scandinavian places like Sweden, Finland, and... Portland Oregon??
Sure, why not! The, um, interestingly-named Lazercrotch hails from Portland, and his debut 7" is the first American skweee release we've ever encountered. And it most definitely IS skweee, and the truly skweee agree, Lazercrotch is gettin' props from the likes of Mrs. Qeada and Randy Barracuda.
"Nugut!" is a low-slung, loose-limbed groove, with the crunching bass blurp and whooshing synths we like... likewise the flipside is totally skweeed up too. Cool. It's a 45, which means you can play it on 33 if you like, for extra slowed down, drugged out, fucked up effect.
We look forward to hearing more from Lazercrotch, and Poisonous Gases, the label he's formed to promote skweee in this country.

LEE, SHAWN & CLUTCHY HOPKINS Fascinating Fingers (Ubiquity) cd 16.98
These mysterious funk nomads are back for round two of collaborations, after last years superb Clutch Of The Tiger. Multi-instrumentalists Shawn Lee (who has lately taken to being photographed wearing a tiger mask) and possibly imaginary character, Clutchy Hopkins, expand on the organic desert funk they are known for, but add a whole lot more to their sonic arsenal, including orchestral elements, strings, Mellotron, vibes, sitars and gongs, sounding often like a thrilling lost seventies soundtrack. Definitely a chill vibe if somewhat darker than their usually sunny jams. The track "Root Trees", features an appearance by UK soul group the Superimposers. If the schtick of their mysterious identities has long worn off, the quality of the music they make is still pretty solid!
MPEG Stream: "Root Trees"
MPEG Stream: "Chapter 2"
MPEG Stream: "Fish Sauce"
MPEG Stream: "What More Can I Say?"

LEE, SHAWN & CLUTCHY HOPKINS Fascinating Fingers (Ubiquity) lp 22.00
These mysterious funk nomads are back for round two of collaborations, after last years superb Clutch Of The Tiger. Multi-instrumentalists Shawn Lee (who has lately taken to being photographed wearing a tiger mask) and possibly imaginary character, Clutchy Hopkins, expand on the organic desert funk they are known for, but add a whole lot more to their sonic arsenal, including orchestral elements, strings, Mellotron, vibes, sitars and gongs, sounding often like a thrilling lost seventies soundtrack. Definitely a chill vibe if somewhat darker than their usually sunny jams. The track "Root Trees", features an appearance by UK soul group the Superimposers. If the schtick of their mysterious identities has long worn off, the quality of the music they make is still pretty solid!
MPEG Stream: "Root Trees"
MPEG Stream: "Chapter 2"
MPEG Stream: "Fish Sauce"
MPEG Stream: "What More Can I Say?"

LIGHTNING BOLT Earthly Delights (Load) cd 14.98
It's hard to believe it's been almost 4 years since the last Lightning Bolt record. It does seem like they've been touring pretty much nonstop for the last decade, and nothing compares to seeing these guys live, set up on the floor, right in the middle of the pit, the volume deafening, the energy contagious, the playing frantic and furious, these guys are pretty untouchable live, and the way they make such a din with just bass and drums, makes all other rhythm section duos sound sad in comparison. And while records rarely capture the intensity of live performances, LB records have been pretty consistently kick ass, heavy and complex, a bit murky and lo-fi. but if you've ever seen the band, their equipment looks like they built it from scraps, so one might imagine the recordings would be similarly haphazard.
Earthly Delights picks up pretty much right where Hypermagic Mountain left off. The bass buzzes and sings, somehow filling up the low end, while spitting out squiggly melodies, the drums galloping wildly, explosive fills, jumbled math melting rhythms, the vocals super distorted yelps, the songs weirdly catchy, or if not specifically catchy in the traditional sense, the repeated riffs and motifs get lodged in your head, and you pretty much want them to go on forever, and they sort of do. And the thing is, not a whole lot has changed in the ensuing years since the last record, but why should anything have changed? You don't fix what ain't broke, and anyway, NO ONE sounds like Lightning Bolt, and they were already insanely tight, so not sure things could get any tighter, if anything, it's just another batch of bad ass LB jams, which is more then enough. Of course there's the very metal 12 minute closing track, that will have you wondering how the fuck any one can play like that non stop for 12 whole minutes, which will then lead you to wonder how they play like that for a WHOLE SET. Better not to wonder, just let them do their superhuman noise rock thing, you just sit back and enjoy it, or better yet jump around like crazy and try to keep up.
MPEG Stream: "Sound Guardians"
MPEG Stream: "Nation Of Boar"
MPEG Stream: "Transmissionary"

LIGHTNING BOLT Earthly Delights (Load) 2lp 17.98
It's hard to believe it's been almost 4 years since the last Lightning Bolt record. It does seem like they've been touring pretty much nonstop for the last decade, and nothing compares to seeing these guys live, set up on the floor, right in the middle of the pit, the volume deafening, the energy contagious, the playing frantic and furious, these guys are pretty untouchable live, and the way they make such a din with just bass and drums, makes all other rhythm section duos sound sad in comparison. And while records rarely capture the intensity of live performances, LB records have been pretty consistently kick ass, heavy and complex, a bit murky and lo-fi. but if you've ever seen the band, their equipment looks like they built it from scraps, so one might imagine the recordings would be similarly haphazard.
Earthly Delights picks up pretty much right where Hypermagic Mountain left off. The bass buzzes and sings, somehow filling up the low end, while spitting out squiggly melodies, the drums galloping wildly, explosive fills, jumbled math melting rhythms, the vocals super distorted yelps, the songs weirdly catchy, or if not specifically catchy in the traditional sense, the repeated riffs and motifs get lodged in your head, and you pretty much want them to go on forever, and they sort of do. And the thing is, not a whole lot has changed in the ensuing years since the last record, but why should anything have changed? You don't fix what ain't broke, and anyway, NO ONE sounds like Lightning Bolt, and they were already insanely tight, so not sure things could get any tighter, if anything, it's just another batch of bad ass LB jams, which is more then enough. Of course there's the very metal 12 minute closing track, that will have you wondering how the fuck any one can play like that non stop for 12 whole minutes, which will then lead you to wonder how they play like that for a WHOLE SET. Better not to wonder, just let them do their superhuman noise rock thing, you just sit back and enjoy it, or better yet jump around like crazy and try to keep up.
MPEG Stream: "Sound Guardians"
MPEG Stream: "Nation Of Boar"
MPEG Stream: "Transmissionary"

LUCE, ED Wuvable Oaf #2 (Goat Blud Comics) comic 3.95
Once again, the big, hairy, doll making, lovestruck punk rock behemoth better known as Wuvable Oaf returns! We've been champions of Luce's crazy creation since the moment we first laid eyes on Oaf and his equally hirsute cadre of pals and lovers and hangers on. Not to mention the kitties!
For those new to the Oaf, in a city, suspiciously like San Francisco, lives the Wuvable Oaf, who spends his days making cool little stuffed dollies, filling them with his shaved body hair, living in a house full of kitties, and pining after Eiffel, the diminutive lead singer of the band Ejaculoid, who are constantly battling their arch rival band, Spincterine, and that's just scratching the surface. There's lots of unrequited love, nightmarish dream monsters, wild punk rock gigs, nightmare dates, aggro-massage, jilted evil ex-boyfriend chefs, blind dates, bands with names like Muff ' N' Top Grrrlz and Wasp Women, a broKENCYDE shirt pops up during a show, so do the bad guys from Superman 2, as does our very own Andee!
It's definitely a wild ride, the art is amazing, super detailed, over the top, there's so much hair everywhere, on the big beefy dudes, on the kitties, it's no wonder why it takes Luce ages to finish each issue, but it's well worth the wait, funny, and fun, and sexy and silly, now we're dying for issue 3, especially after the back page teaser, a big hairy, horned, devil tailed man-beast with the legend "Who is Gote Blud?". Well?? WHO IS IT??????????????

MASERATI Passages (Temporary Residence) cd 13.98
Rev it up! The Maserati boys are back with another compact disc installment of their instrumental, exceedingly rhythmic post rock, and unlike some bands who have run afoul of corporate intellectual property lawyers (Pansonic, Kleenex, Bipolaroid, etc.), they still haven't been sued by the manufacturers of the Italian sports car from whom they borrow their name (though perhaps it's also an obscure Ted Nugent lyrical reference? let's hope not). Probably the suits at the automaker Maserati's headquarters realize that this band's music is free, excellent advertising for their product!
This is definitely -driving- music, sometime a pleasant Sunday drive, sometimes a white knuckle ride over the speed limit, always propulsive, hypnotically repetitive, but dynamic as well. "Join Us, Mystic Sister" is a brief, ecstatic intro, that shines forth and then segues smoothly into "No More Sages", with its vaguely metallic, chucka-chucka guitars, motorik beats, and washes of shoegazery distortion. Other cuts venture further into purely kosmische, krautrock inspired territory, like the minimalist all-synth pulsations of "Thieves".
There's 8 tracks on this 40 minute disc, three of them remixes. However, all but two of the tracks previously appeared on limited edition, now out of print vinyl releases. The first four cuts are from Maserati's side of their 12" split with Zombi that we were never able to get enough of to list. And two of the remixes, by DFA's Tim Goldsworthy and !!!'s Justin Van Der Volgen, are from the Inventions Remixes 12". Both really dance it up, accentuating the cosmic disco vibe that Maserati already possess. The other remix, of a spacier take of this disc's "Monoliths", was done by Zombi's Steve Moore, and is exclusive to this release, as is album closer "Do You Hear The Nightbirds Calling You?". And if all that wasn't enough, this cd is further enhanced by the presence of two pretty cool Quicktime video clips. One's live, the other a cute, partly animated music video demonstrating Maserati's potential as workout music.
As always, VERY recommended for fans of Zombi, Trans Am, Circle, Salvatore, Tussle, Nisennenmondai, SF's own Jonas Reinhardt, and other likeminded coked up post rockers.
MPEG Stream: "No More Sages"
MPEG Stream: "Monoliths"

MCGUIRE, MARK VDSQ - Solo Acoustic Volume Two (Vin Du Select Qualitite) lp 21.00
There are those who might have doubts about an ACOUSTIC guitar record from cosmic zoner Mark McGuire, who has been honing his Achim Reichel / Gunter Schickert guitar arpeggiations in the soon to be legendary trio Emeralds. You might say to yourself, when has Emeralds ever used an acoustic guitar? Can he really play without tons of tripped out effects? Is he good enough without a battery of synths supporting him? Any and all doubts should be dispelled in listening to this record. Yeah, this is really pretty special. McGuire offers five lengthy pieces of psychedelic folk via an acoustic guitar, probably buttressed by a loop station on a few passages during these pieces. The brightly rendered guitar chiming from McGuire's acoustic guitar noticeably detours from the rounded tonal arcs of Emeralds psych-drone workouts; but the rhythmic locomotive aspects from some of the later Emeralds recordings are prominent throughout this album. The nearly sidelong "Burning Leaves" centers upon a rich and warmly clad elliptical strum that spins in a duet around some lovely melodic notes dotting about. As hypnotic as the piece is, it's also downright playful. Other tracks like "At First Sight" and especially "Second Thoughts" have much more of a downer, maudlin vibe that spills through the almost raga hypnosis of McGuire's fingerpicking. Great stuff that would certainly appeal to fans of James Blackshaw, Six Organs, and maybe even Vini Riley. Dare it be said, but had this been released sometime in 1970, this would probably have landed on Takoma!

MELVINS / BRIAN WALSBY Manchild 4 (Bifocal Media) comic book + cd 16.98
If you were going to create a comic book that would appeal equally to fans of Harvey Pekar (American Splendor) and punk metallers the Melvins, Brian Walsby's Manchild would be it. It IS it. Autobiographical, confessional comix about his life, love, and music. Lots and lots of music. Much of this is devoted to stuff about indie/punk/HC/metal, back in the day... Especially for anyone of a certain age, with nostalgia for the '80s and '90s underground rock scene, this is a must! Walsby is a good artist, and writer, and in fact almost each and every panel found on these many, many pages (this is thick!) is packed with text you'll need to squint a bit to read, but it's worth it.
We haven't read the whole thing yet, but we can tell you that in this issue, there's a bunch of stories about bands he's been in (ferinstance Walsby played drums for Snake Nation, with CoC's Woody Weatherman and Mike Dean, and he was also in Shiny Beast, wow, we had no idea) and stuff about his life now, like how he met his current girlfriend, who has a toddler, what what that's been like.... He illustrates some other folks' tales about quitting their jobs, there's a two-page piece about Jason Newsted, all sorts of random, cool shit, usually pretty funny or weird or interesting, sometimes really something to think about.
In addition to the longer stories, there's plenty of one-page and half-page bits, good laughs like the one about reformed '80s hardcore bands, renamed: 700 Seconds, Middle Aged Threat, Adult Brigade, Youth Of Yesterday, Post-Adolescents, Semi-Negative Approach... Or the one about Jimi Hendrix in Heaven, getting pissed that he's required to "jam" with every other rockstar who dies and goes there after him (he's like, "I finally get Janis and Jerry off of my back... and then I have to play with this...'Dimebag Darrell'?").
The comic book would be worth it by itself, but sweetening the deal, this is shrinkwrapped with a LIVE MELVINS CD! Entitled Pick Your Battles, it's about 50 minutes long, presenting 15 tracks taken from two shows, Berkeley back in 1989 and Boston 2008. True Melvins fans want this, even if they don't like comic books, but why wouldn't you like comic books, especially this one?
MPEG Stream: "Oven (live '89)"
MPEG Stream: "Boris (live '08)"

MOUNTAINS Etching (Thrill Jockey) lp 15.98
Earlier this year, Mountains released Choral, an album that is for sure to be on many of our yearend favorite lists. It found the duo truly coming into their own to create a multilayered shoegaze tinged dreamdrift masterpiece. This new lp finds the group in its best long form state of mind with one epic sprawl of daydream bliss-out spread across both sides of this 12". While Mountains have always had their head in the clouds, Etching finds them floating even further out, conjuring up a gorgeous hazy drift of shimmering and crystallized sounds that makes us want to float heavenward right beside them. While we were really impressed with Mountains' ability to craft 'proper' songs on Choral, it's also nice to see them let one of their songs, blossom and expand and unfurl into a long droning and atmospheric bed of sound, that finds them exploring the same sort of territory as folks like William Basinski and Philip Jeck. The mixture of field recordings and their own music is so seamless, creating a soundscape that seems lost in a faded memory. So lovely.
The record comes with a digital download as well in case you don't want to have to get up and flip sides, perhaps interrupting the perfect soundtrack to a late afternoon daydream.
MPEG Stream: "Etching"

NEMESIS The Day Of Retribution (GMR Music) cd 16.98
Been wanting to list this reissue for a while, finally got enough of a handful in stock to do so. If you're into doom metal at all, real old school doom metal, then you're familiar with Swedish legends Candlemass. The premier epic doom band of the '80s, responsible for classic albums like Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, Nightfall, and Ancient Dreams, who are still at it today, most recently bringing the hammer down with Death Magic Doom reviewed here a few months ago.
Well, way way back in their misty past there lurks Nemesis. This is where Candlemass's career of doom began. Featuring future Candlemass bassist/bandleader Leif Edling, and axewielder Christian Weberyd, Nemesis recorded a 12" ep in 1984 entitled The Day Of Retribution. Here it is reissued, complete with original PINK cover art (yay! we love anything, especially anything metal, with a pink cover!). The five songs of the ep, some of them later reused in Candlemass compositions, are examples of raw, wrenching doom dirge at its most basic best. Like Black Sabbath from beyond the grave, gone even more gothic and grim. Maybe I'm just a Candlemass fanboy, but this stuff still gives me the chills. Part of Nemesis' charm belongs to the unpolished vocals, from Leif Edling himself. He's not a soaring, operatic vocalist like Candlemass's best known singer Messiah Marcolin, not at all, but he sounds like he means it, wailing like a damned soul, in a lower register. The chugging riffs and Leif's anguished vox convey a lot of emotive power, enhanced too by the rough production, making the perfect mystic music for blasphemous rites and psychological breakdowns, conjuring Satanic black shapes within one's mind...
This new reissue, with liner notes from Leif, is filled out with six bonus tracks. A prior reissue had paired the Nemesis ep with early Candlemass demos, but this includes even earlier, more cult Nemesis demos instead! Tinny and distorted, but definitely of historical, doomological interest, after you've enjoyed the main course.
MPEG Stream: "Black Messiah"
MPEG Stream: "The King Is Dead"

NEON INDIAN Psychic Chasms (Lefse) cd 14.98
There's a lot of '80s inspired indie pop coming out these days, and sometimes it's really run of the mill pop, doused in distortion and lo-fi weirdness simply to sound like the other hip-at-the-moment popsmiths (Ariel Pink, Ty Segall, Kurt Vile, etc.). And that can be ok. But, when a new band's delivery sounds natural and not so contrived, when the music is rife with subtle unique elements, creating a sound that is not easily removable from the song, then we are ALL ears.
Such is the case with Neon Indian, who have a sonic vibe similar to current blog phenomenon and Mexican Summer buzz maker Washed Out, among others, with their ability to take the colorful and catchy side of '80s electro-tinged pop and bring in a slightly warped yet totally contagious and psychedelic sound palette that taps into a parallel universe where Ariel Pink stole Daft Punk beats and stripped them down a bit to make the kind of swirling effortless sounding pop that's just pretty damn impossible to resist. The lush, skillful production gives these songs such a nice timeless feel, while it definitely is a record that speaks to this moment in time in its reflection and reassembling of pop's past, their sample of Todd Rudgren's "Izzat Love" in one of their songs is proof that Neon Indian mastermind Alan Palamo has a good understanding of the kind of pop production that pulls from varied sources to create such a satisfying, and unique sound. This one is proving to be one of our favorite fall jams of '09! Lots of other folks favorite too, and with good reason!
MPEG Stream: "Should Have Done Acid With You"
MPEG Stream: "Deadbeat Summer"
MPEG Stream: "Mind, Drips"
MPEG Stream: "Psychic Chasms"

NEW DAWN, THE There's A New Dawn (Jackpot) cd 16.98
Sometimes the timing of certain 'lost classic' reissues is too perfect, giving us a glimpse of the seeds of sounds to come, a prequel to certain musical trends that are gaining so much momentum in the here and now. Such is the case with this great, lost, lonesome psych classic from the Pacific Northwest, which was originally released in 1970. We're not sure if he's heard it or not, as this has been a really tough one to track down until recently, but man do we hear plenty of Kurt Vile in these old recording! With a fuzzy and faded vibe, The New Dawn crafted breezy yet dirgy pop songs that sound like some awesome combination of Lee Hazlewood, The Sonics, Roy Orbison, George Brigman, The Byrds, and the Velvet Underground. We can't get enough of the warm organ, haunting vocals, hypnotic percussion, just all the right sonic elements that really do evoke some desolate street at night, wet from a recent downpour and the flickering reflection of the moon on the shimmery black of the slick asphalt. So mesmerizing and intoxicating, we're beyond stoked this album is getting its beyond deserved moment!
Besides the obvious influence on Kurt Vile we could see so many other current AQ favorites being super into these sounds...Beach House, Silver Pines, Broadcast, Thee Oh Sees (circa Sucks Blood), The Beets, The Soundcarriers, Gary War, Sic Alps, as well as folks from the '80s and '90s that we love like Rain Parade, The Telescopes, Beachwood Sparks, Dream Syndicate, etc. Forty years after it was originally released There's A New Dawn is still completely captivating!
MPEG Stream: "(There's A) New Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Hear Me Cryin'"
MPEG Stream: "We Need Each Other"

NIHILL Grond (Hydra Head) cd 16.98
The second Grond begins, it all becomes clear: this is EXACTLY what you want to be listening to! Nihill follows a similar path to progressive black metal heavies such as Deathspell, Blut Aus Nord, and S.V.E.S.T., meaning this is modern black metal done the right way, but they also inject a significant amount of dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom into the mix, ala SUNNO))) and Bunkur. So, uh, do we really need to say it? We're giving this one our seal of approval like you wouldn't believe.
Grond is part II of a trilogy (check out our review for the recent reissue of part I, Krach, from a few lists back), and it kicks off in grand fashion with "Aard," a blitzkrieg of pummeling blast beats, seasick guitar riffs, and forceful growling vocals. The song is a bit like wandering in a psychedelic dream state through a blackened, frozen wilderness, and it doesn't let up one bit for the duration of its 11 furious minutes, at least not until its feedback drenched conclusion, which segues into the next song, "Antimoon", a plodding doomscape pierced with discordant, siren like guitar notes and shrouded in infinite layers of fuzz and murk for the first 8 of its 17 minutes, after which the song spirals into an abyssic crevasse of windy, electronic ambience. "Vacuum" is a brutal and relentless lesson in Satanic riffage that works its way into the depths of your mind with its constant repetition and the singer's harsh, demonic croaks. The song is unrestrained and beyond the control of anything but the band themselves. The final selection here, "Pulsus", is another lesson in abject, doomed out black metal, a glacial, slow moving vortex ready to pull you deep into the misery. As the minutes progress, the song stops and starts like an animal gasping to crawl out of a blizzard, only to repeat its into eternity, or at least until an ever growing fuzz takes over everything in its path.
So yeah, this one pretty much fulfills the requirements for a metal record around this neck of the woods - equal parts speed and barely mobile dooooooooooooooom, all mixed into a hateful brew of metallic fury. We can only wonder where things will go with part III.
MPEG Stream: "Aard"
MPEG Stream: "Antimoon"

OH SEES / PAUL CARY split (Stank House) 7" 5.98
Do John Dwyer and his Oh Sees comrades ever sleep??!! In the last year it seems like they are either playing a show in town, on tour (by the way they are sooooo on fire live right now!) or putting out records. But hey we ain't complaining cause the less they sleep the more rad music we get. This new split with Paul Cary (we don't know much about him), finds Oh Sees (what happened to the THEE?) sounding more slowed down and slightly stoned, which is a side of the band we do really dig, but don't get to hear that often.
Paul Cary reminds us a bit of The Entrance Band all stripped down and playing on someone's front porch, sort of a rustic bluesy lo-fi folk. But like us you are probably here for (Thee) Oh Sees side of this split which finds them doing two covers, "Hey Buddy" by Iran and "Coma" by Trio. Both tracks were included on the now out of print cd that came with the Zork's Tape Bruise LP release a few months back. And we're stoked that more people will finally get a chance to here these covers as they were two of our favorite tracks from that collection. No matter what incarnation or direction (Thee) Oh Sees take they seem to be able to do no wrong as of late, and we have to say we feel pretty lucky to get to see them play as much as we do!

PELICAN What We All Come To Need (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
We were all kinda wondering what would happen with Pelican's first record for Southern Lord, after leaving Hydra Head. Would it be more metal? More black metal? More evil? Would it be more ANYTHING? Well, the answer is yeah, it is -more- a lot of things, but weirdly enough, at least to these ears, Pelican moved in the opposite direction, more melodic, more catchy, more hooky, LESS metal, and the weird thing is, in some ways it makes the music much more lyrical, which helps when you're an instrumental band, but still, here and there it does just the opposite, the sounds seemingly screaming for vocals, thankfully, those moments are few and far between, which leaves another bad ass chunk of heavy instrumental post rock. And few do it as well as Pelican. One thing we noticed this time around is a lot more grunge, some of the riffs, the changes, sound like they could have been lifted right off some classic Sub Pop 7", and Lord knows there ain't nothing wrong with that. Makes it sound heavier too. The guitars sound amazing, thick and crunchy, the melodies pretty catchy, some subtle Sabbath-isms here and there, some serious grooves (in a cool, heavy, UNgroovy way), and the drumming sounds better than ever, solid, tight, with just the right amount of swing, and there seems to be a lot more pretty parts, more space, letting the songs breathe, and sprawl, and open up, which in turn of course makes the heavier parts sound that much heavier. The band tackled an Earth cover on the Ephemeral 12", and it sounded great, so it makes sense that we're hearing some of that same epic sweeping twang, albeit more subtly on some of the songs here.
The cool thing about Pelican these days, is that they just sound like Pelican. Sure they inhabit a scene where there's plenty of sonic overlap, but these guys are just so good, and they've really turned into ace songwriters, which is critical when you're writing all instrumentals.
So yeah, if you already dig these guys, or love heavy rock, or metallic post rock or any of that sort of stuff, odds are this will totally hit the spot, and we were gonna say that if you didn't like Pelican already, then this probably wouldn't change your mind, but the more we listen to it, the more we're beginning to think it just might!
MPEG Stream: "Glimmer"
MPEG Stream: "The Creeper"
MPEG Stream: "Ephemeral"

PORTAL Swarth (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Death metal weirdos Portal return with another blast of incomprehensible sonic destruction, an avant garde, sepia tinged nightmare that perfectly indicates how appropriate a name like "Portal" is for a group like this. It's like stepping into another world - in this case, Australia, home to all kinds of unprecedented and bizarre metal groups like dISEMBOWELMENT, Halo, and Nekrasov. Simply put, Portal are fucking weird. Not only that, they are intense, and while no one will mistake this for anything other than scary as hell metal, the insane song structures and bizarre instrumentation - harsh and totally unique riffing, cyclonic drumming, and super guttural death growls (the only sort of "normal" thing about the group, but in this context they still sound pretty much unlike anything else) - are something different altogether. It's like whoever is playing guitar decided, after completely mastering his craft, to throw out all knowledge of standard guitar chords and build the band's sound off of hithero unknown chords that are sour, sludgey, and just completely fucking out there. One wonders just how the hell the band remembers where they are going, but somehow they get there like only they can. The overall sound on Swarth, and pretty much all of Portal's releases, is like a buzzing insect caught in a torrential downpour on the moon, or in some parallel dimension... or something. If you haven't figured it out yet, it's pretty hard to pin this stuff down, which is certainly a quality we appreciate in a genre plagued with formulaic ripoffs. So take comfort in the fact that there is hardly anything you could have ever anticipated in a metal group and go from there. It might just change the way you look at things - ESPECIALLY death metal!
MPEG Stream: "Swarth"
MPEG Stream: "Larvae"
MPEG Stream: "Illoomorpheme"

PULSE EMITTER Grass (Gift Tapes) cassette 5.98
That's right. Another killer collection of sci-fi space drone synth bliss from big time aQ fave Pulse Emitter. And yeah, this one is again, crazy limited. Only 100 copies made, we got the very last 20. Which means once these are gone, we will NOT be able to get more. And since we're fairly sure there are more than 20 people out there in aQ land who wand, nay NEED, all things Pulse Emitter, we'll keep this brief.
Grass, while not as 'oppressive' as the recent Oppressive Nature release on Digitalis, and not as meditative as the three part Meditative Music series, manages to fall somewhere in between, probably a little closer to the meditative side of things, we'd say. Slow burning dreamdrones drifting through space would sum it up in a sentence, but why leave it at that. The sound on Grass is epic and expansive and space-y, definitely a Pulse Emitter disc that would hit the spot for all you Expo 70 obsessives, the same sort of space kraut vibe. Loooooong tones undulate and shift, melodies surface and dissipate, laced with some strange Morricone like faux flute melodies. The foundation is a dense throbbing low end, layered and gorgeously textured, shifting overtones and barely restrained feedback, but above and all around that main drone, various layers and melodic fragments drift and shimmer and float weightless as if in orbit around a brilliant black star. So gorgeous.
Definitely recommended, as is grabbing one of these quick before they disappear. Already out of print, these are again, the LAST 20 copies. Packaged in super nice full color sleeves.

PYLON Chomp More (DFA) cd 14.98
Yes! Pylon's second and last record (with the original line-up) from 1983 has finally got the same expanded and remastered reissue treatment that their first record received from the hip folks at DFA. It's been a bittersweet couple of years for Pylon, emerging from years of relative obscurity, reuniting for a tour and seeing their records released once again to a legion of new fans, but sad because guitarist and founding member, Randall Bewley passed away suddenly this year. While never as popular as their Athens, GA contemporaries, R.E.M, and the B-52's, Pylon's post-punk influence has remained sturdy and can be heard in many bands from the Riot Grrl era to the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. Pylon's distinct guitar angularity, propulsive dance rhythms and lead singer, Vanessa Hay's seductive growl whipped audiences into a frenzy in the late seventies and early eighties and finally the original version of "Crazy" can be heard for the amazing spitfire track it is. R.E.M.'s more famous cover version just doesn't compete. Way Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Beep"
MPEG Stream: "Crazy"
MPEG Stream: "No Clocks"

RAVEONETTES, THE In And Out Of Control (Vice) cd 14.98
Sometimes we joke that a review really could be one line and describe the music perfectly and succinctly. If we were to try that with the latest from The Raveonettes it would read: If you like great pop you will love this record! But of course, where's the fun in that?? We've definitely never been accused for being at a loss for words when it comes to records we love, so here comes some total gushing!
Last year The Raveonettes revealed a much more raw and fuzzy side to their sound making one of the best Jesus & Mary Chain influenced records in a sea of falling-way-short wannabes. Under all of the fuzz and distortion, it was still clear that The Raveonettes are first and foremost great songwriters who know how to create the kind of hooks and melodies that stay stuck in your head for ages. With In And Out Of Control, the fuzz and feedback have been dialed back, but those golden pop chops are flexed with even greater potency as they take their love of girl groups, and that true knack for conjuring timeless cool pop, creating their own special sound, with such ease and confidence, a sizzling sultry shimmery pop that we can't get enough of. It's kind of puzzling to us why this band hasn't gotten even more popular, cuz in our book The Raveonettes have definitely reached a total apex in creating some of the best modern pop we've heard in ages!
MPEG Stream: "Bang!"
MPEG Stream: "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)"
MPEG Stream: "Breaking Into Cars"

ROBEDOOR Raiders (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
Another sprawling drone space psychedelic doom bliss workout from these Southern California sonic explorers. Whereas past records were seriously dense and grim and droney, Raiders finds the band blossoming into some seriously lysergic space doom drift, vocals soaring through fields of reverb, the guitars thick slabs of burnished buzz, the drums skeletal, the whole vibe druggy and dreamy, and way more ethereal.
The band do get heavier, hauling out the fuzz bass, and letting the drums get all tribal, but even then the thick clouds of rumbling blur, are laced with spidery tendrils of glistening high end melodies, and a soft hazy gauze of smeared vocals and layered effects, trippy and buzzy, drifting into Loop / Spacemen 3 territory, albeit a bit more ferocious and feral. Throughout though, the band seem to keep the ambience anchored to songs, or at least almost-songs, everything melodic, subtly or otherwise, sometimes pretty and haunting, other times chaotic and crushing, and again at other times hushed and minimal.
Still plenty doomy and droney, but probably Robedoor's prettiest and songiest slab of sound to date.

SCOTT, SIMON Navigare (Miasmah) cd 15.98
Ah, Miasmah! After the likes of Elegi, Jacazek, and Kreng, we're pretty much automatically interested in any new release on Norway's Miasmah label. Like this one. Add in some bits of trivia, like that Scott was once the drummer for shoegazers Slowdive, and that this disc features a guest cameo from another Miasmah artist we love, Jasper TX, and we're already pretty intrigued. We also weren't at all surprised, but certainly pleased, by the gentle swells of ambient sonics that seep sleepily from the speakers when one hits play. The first two tracks, "Introduction Of Cambridge" and "Under Crumbling Skies", are blissfully replete with quiet hum and shimmering textures, forming into and out of drifting diaphanous melodies, blurry and melancholic. Some sparse, slowed down drum skitter adds a touch of Bohren to the proceedings in the first track, while the second employs a glorious chorus of angelic drones, that graces one's ears again and again throughout the disc.
Then, suddenly upping the volume, the third track "Flood Inn" seemingly enters into a subterranean realm full of soft fuzzy distortion. Quasi-industrially rhythmic, with a distant tolling bell heard amidst the crackle, this is ambience of the heavier (but not harsh) variety, almost like something from a Nadja or Jesu album.
Having given warning of a more sinister side, the disc continues on, with seven tracks more, being a beautiful blend of dreaminess, drone and distortion. There are almost pop songs hidden here, with buried rhythms and barely-there vocals (in one instance contributed by 12K's Sanae Yamasaki, aka Moskitoo), electronic treatments rendering the sound sources (guitar, sitar, violin, cello, flute, field recordings, voice, ???) all one lush, hushed, beautifully bleary, gorgeous warm bath of song-like drone...
It's a moodier, shoegazier take on Pop Ambient perhaps, certainly something that fans of Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Final, Jasper TX, and of course those other Miasmah wonders should check out!
MPEG Stream: "Introduction Of Cambridge"
MPEG Stream: "Flood Inn"
MPEG Stream: "Ashma"

SHRINEBUILDER s/t (Neurot) cd 12.98
Most people cringe upon hearing the word "supergroup," and not without good reason: most supergroups fucking suck. Shrinebuilder, however, is a rare beast, an exception to the general rule, and it almost seems offensive to call them a supergroup. BUT... that's sort of what they are. Consisting of Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep), Dale Crover (the Melvins), and Wino (you should know him by now, but let's mention The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan and Saint Vitus!!), Shrinebuilder raised some pretty high hopes, and it seemed impossible that these four living legends would let us down. Thankfully, they haven't. In fact, Shrinebuilder's debut has far exceeded any expectations we had for a project which was pretty much destined to kick our asses in all kinds of different directions. You can detect each musician's individual style, sure, but more than anything, Shrinebuilder seems to follow a decidedly old school approach to heaviness - think Sabbath, Buffalo, that kind of thing - delivering five lengthy songs of groove laden metal heavy on the riffs (no surprise there), doomy bass, awesome to the point drumming, and plenty of spacey FX. There are moments where you have to remind yourself that you aren't listening to Sleep, especially when Al lays on the wah wah pedal, and parts of this album fulfill the fantasies of those who sometimes wish Om had a guitar player. Scott Kelly and Wino are one hell of a guitar team, and there are some amazing moments of fuzzy, sustained harmonies and plenty of chugging overdriven riffage. Crover's drumming is particularly impressive here, not that anyone needs to remind you that the guy slays. His playing here is less busy than it tends to be with the Melvins, and his steady pound suits these songs perfectly. The unmistakable vocal stylings of Wino, Scott, and Al all show up, but one of the band's greatest strengths is the fact that this sounds like the work not of some half assed side project, but of an actual band. So yeah, don't let the whole "supergroup" tag throw you off, as this is a potent brew of fully realized HEAVIOSITY.
By the way, this is on special sale here ($2 off the regular $14.98 it would be) for the next two weeks only. Not that we can imagine anyone who'd be into this not picking it up right away anyway!
MPEG Stream: "Solar Benediction"
MPEG Stream: "Pyramid Of The Moon"

SIXX Sister Devil - Demo 1991 (Nuclear War Now!) cd 11.98
Bay area black metal masters Von were responsible for two of the most important USBM documents ever, the Satanic Blood and Blood Angel demos, considered by many to be the first US black metal record(s), and to this day, those records continue to inspire a legion of musical hordes, who strive to emulate that furious idiosyncratic raw that few can reproduce. What few people know, is that right after the release of those demos, the members of Von shifted their focus to another project, with a way different sound and vibe, called Sixx, which was anything but black metal, instead a dark, creepy, brooding, gothic deathrock, think Bauhaus, Christian Death, Specimen, all minor key spidery guitars, swirling dark ambience, pounding new wave drums, and of course, super dramatic crooned vocals.
It seems almost prescient, considering that this sound is enjoying a pretty serious resurgence these days: past Record Of The Weekers Soror Dolorosa, Hateful Abandon, Factums, Dial M For Murder, Cold Cave, Crystal Stilts, etc. But this demo, recorded in 1991, was as mentioned above, recorded hot on the heels of two of the most grim and raw, blasting black metal records ever! And while it may not directly inform the actual sound, it does speak to what a strange and special record the Sixx demo was and is. Chiming guitars and krauty rhythms, lots of reverb and delay, a dark brooding ambience, we hear lots of classic goth and darkwave and new wave, Kommunity FK, Human Drama, Tones On Tail, and the more we listen to it, the more the link between Sixx and Von crystallizes, both bands trafficked in simple stripped down songs, most with only one or two parts, vocals repetitive and mantric, in fact, in some ways, Sixx almost sounds like Von with all the distortion removed, right down to those classic Von goaty grunts. That said, just 'cause you like Von, doesn't necessarily mean you'll like Sixx, but if you dig that sound, and any of the above mentioned bands, then Sixx's Sister Devil might just be your lost reissue / rediscovered gem of the year.
MPEG Stream: "On The Dead"

SIXX Sister Devil - Demo 1991 (Nuclear War Now!) lp 16.98
Bay area black metal masters Von were responsible for two of the most important USBM documents ever, the Satanic Blood and Blood Angel demos, considered by many to be the first US black metal record(s), and to this day, those records continue to inspire a legion of musical hordes, who strive to emulate that furious idiosyncratic raw that few can reproduce. What few people know, is that right after the release of those demos, the members of Von shifted their focus to another project, with a way different sound and vibe, called Sixx, which was anything but black metal, instead a dark, creepy, brooding, gothic deathrock, think Bauhaus, Christian Death, Specimen, all minor key spidery guitars, swirling dark ambience, pounding new wave drums, and of course, super dramatic crooned vocals.
It seems almost prescient, considering that this sound is enjoying a pretty serious resurgence these days: past Record Of The Weekers Soror Dolorosa, Hateful Abandon, Factums, Dial M For Murder, Cold Cave, Crystal Stilts, etc. But this demo, recorded in 1991, was as mentioned above, recorded hot on the heels of two of the most grim and raw, blasting black metal records ever! And while it may not directly inform the actual sound, it does speak to what a strange and special record the Sixx demo was and is. Chiming guitars and krauty rhythms, lots of reverb and delay, a dark brooding ambience, we hear lots of classic goth and darkwave and new wave, Kommunity FK, Human Drama, Tones On Tail, and the more we listen to it, the more the link between Sixx and Von crystallizes, both bands trafficked in simple stripped down songs, most with only one or two parts, vocals repetitive and mantric, in fact, in some ways, Sixx almost sounds like Von with all the distortion removed, right down to those classic Von goaty grunts. That said, just 'cause you like Von, doesn't necessarily mean you'll like Sixx, but if you dig that sound, and any of the above mentioned bands, then Sixx's Sister Devil might just be your lost reissue / rediscovered gem of the year.
MPEG Stream: "On The Dead"

SKELETONWITCH Breathing The Fire (Prosthetic) cd 12.98
Better start doing some special stretches to limber up that neck. Your neck's gotta be in shape 'cause the headbanging is about to commence, and it'll be fierce. Skeletonwitch is back, Breathing The Fire. The vocalist sure sounds like he's been doing just that, with his commanding raspy shrieks and guttural growls, in a hybrid black metal/death metal style. Meanwhile the band's music, as always, veers from those extremes (reminding of Dissection) to their old school '80s thrash and speed metal inspirations (there's definitely some Megadeth going on here). If you know Skeletonwitch (and it seems like most AQ metal customers do, and dig 'em big time just like us), you know what to expect: a whirlwind barrage of riffs, solos, battery. Twin guitars sending swarms of notes speeding on demon winds, that sort of thing. All in the service of Satan or whatever unholy horned beastie you prefer (like the fella on the cover, Skeletonwitch's own Eddie or Vic Rattlehead style mascot, who is called, uh, we don't know, Mr. Skeletonwitch? Skeletonwitchdude?). Though you might not understand what the singer is "singing" without reference to the lyric sheet, the song titles give a good idea: "Submit To The Suffering", "Released From The Catacombs", "Crushed Beyond Dust", "Blinding Black Rage", "Strangled By Unseen Hands"... not happy stuff. Yet any metalhead worth his denim will be grinning as this spins, quaffing a few cans of beer in celebration. While this disc hits the ground running for sure, we'd say it gets better as it goes, and boy does it go, each track blazing by a 2-3 minute conflagration of sheer metal madness.
MPEG Stream: "Where The Light Has Failed"
MPEG Stream: "Gorge Upon My Soul"

SKELETONWITCH Breathing The Fire (Prosthetic) lp 14.98
Better start doing some special stretches to limber up that neck. Your neck's gotta be in shape 'cause the headbanging is about to commence, and it'll be fierce. Skeletonwitch is back, Breathing The Fire. The vocalist sure sounds like he's been doing just that, with his commanding raspy shrieks and guttural growls, in a hybrid black metal/death metal style. Meanwhile the band's music, as always, veers from those extremes (reminding of Dissection) to their old school '80s thrash and speed metal inspirations (there's definitely some Megadeth going on here). If you know Skeletonwitch (and it seems like most AQ metal customers do, and dig 'em big time just like us), you know what to expect: a whirlwind barrage of riffs, solos, battery. Twin guitars sending swarms of notes speeding on demon winds, that sort of thing. All in the service of Satan or whatever unholy horned beastie you prefer (like the fella on the cover, Skeletonwitch's own Eddie or Vic Rattlehead style mascot, who is called, uh, we don't know, Mr. Skeletonwitch? Skeletonwitchdude?). Though you might not understand what the singer is "singing" without reference to the lyric sheet, the song titles give a good idea: "Submit To The Suffering", "Released From The Catacombs", "Crushed Beyond Dust", "Blinding Black Rage", "Strangled By Unseen Hands"... not happy stuff. Yet any metalhead worth his denim will be grinning as this spins, quaffing a few cans of beer in celebration. While this disc hits the ground running for sure, we'd say it gets better as it goes, and boy does it go, each track blazing by a 2-3 minute conflagration of sheer metal madness.
MPEG Stream: "Where The Light Has Failed"
MPEG Stream: "Gorge Upon My Soul"

SPENCE, JOSEPH Bahaman Guitarist: Good Morning Mr. Walker (Mississippi) lp 16.98
Another awesome Mississippi Records reissue, this one from Bahaman guitarist Joseph Spence, who has one of the most unique guitar and vocal styles EVER. This came out originally on Arhoolie way back when, but this vinyl reissue is super swank, one of those old school paste on type jackets, with the textured faux leather sleeve, with the artwork affixed over the top.
But none of that would matter if the music wasn't amazing, and it IS. Spence's guitar playing is playful and lyrical, tangled and lush, melodies unfurled in little flurries, a weird and wonderful combination of strumming and picking and slapping and scraping and plucking, so so strange, but so magical, and when combined with his vocals... WOW. We're not sure he's even singing actual words. It's all mumbled and growly and grunted and howled and mush mouthed, every now and again, an actual word or two will pop up, but besides that, it's more like scatting, and he has a cool deep growl that sounds quite a bit like Captain Beefheart or a pirate, or some weird mix of the two. Such a fun and fantastic record. Way recommended.

T & K Mucho Swash (Italians Do It Better) 12" 9.98
It's always an exciting day at aQ when a new Italians Do It Better 12" comes in as that label is really at top of its game, releasing some of the best and most suave sounding dance jams over the last few years (Glass Candy, Chromatics, Nite Jewel, Desire, Twisted Wires, etc.).
While most of the stuff they've put out has a very Moroder-esque disco vibe, it's awesome to hear something on a different side of the dance equation this time out. T & K is the collaboration between DJ Kaos and Tiago, who mine gold from the heyday of the Chicago house scene and prove that it wasn't just the early days of disco that had the ingredients for melty and sexy dancefloor grooves. The sounds of classic house from America make its way into the ears (and sound) of these two European producers who hail from Germany and Portugal, and who for sure add a nice touch of their own, that totally silky and seductive side of Euro dance music that really makes this an Italians Do It Better release, retaining the label's high standards of sexy soundmaking, yet offering a much needed different taking off point for reaching that state of smoke filled dance floor bliss. So good!

TEENAGE FILMSTARS Rocket Charms / Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness / Bring Back The Cartel: The Epiphany Triptych (Artpop! / Cherry Red) 2cd 16.98
BACK IN STOCK! We've been getting tons of orders for this recent Record Of The Week, and were out of stock for a little while, but now have a bunch back in...
Finally. Finally. FINALLY! If ever there was a more anticipated (around here at least) or a more criminally overdue reissue, it's this one right here. A mind blowing three-fer from should-have-been-massive blissed out fractured psych pop masters Teenage Filmstars, fronted by the inimitable Ed Ball, whom as we mentioned in our review of Star, TF's genius debut, was once described by My Bloody Valentine mainman Kevin Shields as "A sensitive soul from another planet. A modernist musical alchemist". Shield also had this to say about Ball: "Where other people struggle, Ed Ball plays what we're thinking." Which coming from the man behind My Bloody Valentine means a lot. Especially when considering Teenage Filmstars, who employ a sonic palette not all that far removed from MBV's. BUT, and a very big but at that, minus the explosive bursts of caustic noise, MBV hewed more to a traditional pop sensibility than Teenage Filmstars. Where as Loveless, even for all its amazing wall of guitar heaviness, and effects drenched dreaminess, was still anchored to a verse chorus verse framework, with Teenage Filmstars, those conventions are tossed aside, or at the very least, flipped over, doused in effects, chopped up and played backwards. Which is why once again, we must proclaim, that in the landscape of (not so) popular music, TEENAGE FILMSTARS ARE BETTER THAN MY BLOODY VALENTINE. And don't get us wrong, we LOVE LOVE LOVE My Bloody Valentine, but imagine an alternate universe MBV, where for some reason, Shields' guitars played backwards, effects boxes grew sentient and demanded as much space as the instruments and voices, imagine viewing all of those sounds, already twisted and skewed, through a fractured funhouse mirror, and then, if you can, imagine some musical wizard, who is able to reign in all of those sounds, and somehow shape them into some of the most perfect UNpop you've ever heard.
Which brings us to Rocket Charms, record number two from Teenage Filmstars, which finds all the sounds on Star, pushed even farther out, the backwards sounds are more backwards (and there are more of them), the guitars are crunchier and more crumbly, the melodies are more catchy, the murk and shimmer are both murkier and shimmerier, and the production, is even more hazy and spaced out and lysergic and psychedelic and fucking head spinning. And yet somehow, Rocket Charms is a pop record, hooky and catchy, lilting and melodic. Opener "Pressure" is an immediate 'hit' if there ever was one, processed falsetto vox over swooping backwards rhythms and washed out guitar haze, a sort of druggy backwards Beach Boys pop ambience. And it just goes on from there, every song, a gorgeous slab of outsider twisted pop, on the surface a whirling sonic dervish, but within drift all manner of classic pop tropes, in the able hands of Ed Ball, subverted and turned inside out, wreathed in hiss and sparkle, and rendered, well, Teenage.
But then amidst all this deconstructed shoegazey noise pop (or pop noise), comes the track "Alone", quite possible our favorite jam on Rocket Charms, a slow brooding dirge, all skittery Stone Roses-y drums, thick distorted bass, disembodied voices, swirling ominous dark ambience, and a main melody that just might be the catchiest bit on the record, sounding like a slowed down twisted take on the Cure's "Close To You", but via Pop Will Eat Itself or some other warped UK grebo combo.
The crazy thing is, Rocket Charms for being as fantastic and over the top and incredible, isn't even our favorite Teenage Filmstars record. That honor belongs to the awesomely titled Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness, which takes all of the songs and sounds from Rocket Charms and Star, and makes them WAY HEAVIER, WAY MORE FUCKED UP, the processed guitars and backwards guitars and vocals have gone haywire, the songs are less songs here and more fucked up fragmented pop experiments, but again, Ball has such a deft hand that he manages to take all these totally freaked out elements, and gets them to work, and sound like pop songs, albeit, totally dizzying and abstract, psychedelic and almost metallic at times. The record's defining moment is the opener "Physical Graffiti", not a Zeppelin cover, but hell, it sounds like it could be some sort of insane My Bloody Valentine / Led Zeppelin mash up maybe, but one that had been totally tweaked, chopped and screwed, then sped up and flipped reverse again, listening to it, it's hard to imagine how anyone could envision music like this, let alone actually make it. The guitars swoop all over the stereo field, stuttering, blurring into huge backwards swells, the drums are chaotic, the vocals sound backwards too, but not overtly, the melodies so memorable and catchy, at one point the whole track begins to stutter, almost as if your cd player is skipping, but it soon swoops back into the dreamlike psychedelic swirl.
Not all of Support Our Sickness is as heavy and crunchy, many of the tracks begin as classic sixties sounding pop, but as they progress, the effects seem to slowly take over, often one or more of the instruments flipping backwards and erupting into a squall of psychedelic freakout, but just as often, sprawling into a woozy almost balladic bit of slithery backwards slowcore. But even at its prettiest, the sounds are slightly tweaked, the vibe is subtly menacing, laced with bits of sunshiney jangle for sure, but this is some seriously drugged out dream pop damage, and remains to this day, one of the most amazing, and unlikely genius pop records EVER.
The first disc features 5 bonus tracks, two from the Support Our Sickness sessions, as well as three other unreleased jams, none quite as twisted, but still awesome, and in fact, they almost sound like they were rough drafts, just waiting to get the Ed Ball mad scientist backwards fucked up FX makeover. So that's it, BUY IT, you won't be sorry, this is easily some of the most forward thinking pop music ever, heavy and psychedelic, druggy and delirious, catchy and crazy and bafflingly brilliant.
But wait, what's this, a THIRD record? Teenage Filmstars final missive, and a pretty bizarre sonic sea change, in fact, it sounds like a totally different band. To be honest, we're not into it at all, Bring Back The Cartel found the band doing some sort of skittery smooth jazz electronic mood music, it makes very little sense that this one would get tacked on with the other two, when we first ordered this we actually thought it WAS just those other two, but maybe some folks will dig Bring Back The Cartel, there are some moments, here and there, but it doesn't at all approach the sheer brilliance of Rocket Charms or Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness, so our advice would be probably to just give it a spin, and if you dig it, cool, if not, just ignore it, pretend it's not there, and immerse yourself in those first two, let the sounds twist you inside out and carry you off, play it over and over and over and over, forever and ever and ever and ever. Totally fucking incredible, and not just worthy of Record Of The Week honors, definitely something more, like how about Record of FOREVER!?!?
MPEG Stream: "Pressure"
MPEG Stream: "Alone"
MPEG Stream: "Physical Graffiti"
MPEG Stream: "Guruprophecy"
MPEG Stream: "Feeding The Blue Jays"
MPEG Stream: "Whatever Happened To Richard Boon"

TINARIWEN Imidiwan: Companions (World Village / Harmonia Mundi) cd + dvd 21.00
While the origins and history of this Tuareg nomadic group are so interesting and epic, these days what truly stands out is the amazing records they make. Their last outing Aman Iman, was a bigtime AQ favorite and this follow up does not disappoint.
On each release, Tinariwen tend to ease into their sound with more flow and a tranquil intensity that's very hard to achieve, yet it comes to them so naturally. Their guitars, vocals, hand claps, and percussion all come together to create such a hypnotizing intensely moving musical experience. For sure following blueprints laid down by the late great Ali Farka Toure but truly finding their own voice and signature sound that rings with so much soul and such undeniable authenticity. Tinariwen are one of the few African bands who have managed to slightly cross over into a larger following without losing one ounce of their integrity or musical vision. They truly have crafted a sound that's instantaneously recognizable as their own and it's so awesome that we've begun to hear their influence on lots of American indie bands like Brightblack Morning Light, The Drift, OM, and Wooden Shjips. The album closes with "Desert Wind" which really captures the desolate feeling of sand blowing across the desert sky, a track that most drone acts would kill to call their own. Once again Tinariwen has made a record that we're sure will stand the test of time. Oh, and this also comes with a rad documentary film about the group on an all regions dvd.
MPEG Stream: "Tahult In"
MPEG Stream: "Lulla"
MPEG Stream: "Kel Tamashek"

V/A Can You Dig It? The Music And Politics Of Black Action Films (Soul Jazz) 2cd + book 23.00
Yes, we can dig it! Soul Jazz hits the jackpot once again with this completely amazing collection of songs from Blaxploitation films during the golden era of 1968-1975. There are a million reasons why this collection is so fucking great. But one critical way, in which this comp has become a defining collection of the sound and culture, is that most collections of Blaxploitation music up to this point only really focused on the camp and kitsch aspects of the movement, when really it was about so much more: true independence, total empowerment, bold political statements, reclamation of culture, off the hook fashion, and music with such real and deep soul, which provided the perfect soundtrack to these revolutionary films.
Can You Dig It? does a great job of mixing many amazing ultra obscure tracks some more well known jams, balancing the joy of discovery with the stone cold fact that no matter how many times you hear something from Curtis Mayfield's Superfly it always sounds so damn good. But of course this being Soul Jazz, they dig WAAAAAAY deeper, giving us truly stunning and burning tracks from the likes of Willie Hutch, Martha Reeves, Dennis Coffey, Solomon Burke & Gene Page, Don Julian, Johnny Pate, as well as tracks that somehow slipped under the radar from bigger name folks like James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes.
The sequencing and variety and richness in sound is so compelling and wonderfully varied. So often when this is playing for a while in the store people will ask "Is this still that comp?" and when we say yes they shake their heads in astonishment and usually have to get one right away. In fact right after the amazing Yo La Tengo instore performance last weekend, we put this on and all three members of the band at different times came up to us needing to know what it was and of course they bought one right away. Finally someone has done justice to the music of this movement and era, and our ears are in total heaven!
The double-cd version comes with an out-of-control informative and visually pleasing 100 page book as well as awesome postcards and stickers. The vinyl versions are split into two volumes and while it's awesome to have these songs on vinyl, the bummer is that the vinyl format doesn't come with the amazing 100 page booklet...
MPEG Stream: WILLIE HUTCH "Brother's Gonna Work It Out"
MPEG Stream: MARVIN GAYE "T Plays It Cool"
MPEG Stream: DENNIS COFFEY "Black Belt Jones"
MPEG Stream: JAMES BROWN "Make It Good To Yourself"
MPEG Stream: GORDEN STAPLES "Strung Out"
MPEG Stream: EDWIN STARR "Easin' In"

V/A Can You Dig It? The Music And Politics Of Black Action Films - Volume 1 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
Yes, we can dig it! Soul Jazz hits the jackpot once again with this completely amazing collection of songs from Blaxploitation films during the golden era of 1968-1975. There are a million reasons why this collection is so fucking great. But one critical way, in which this comp has become a defining collection of the sound and culture, is that most collections of Blaxploitation music up to this point only really focused on the camp and kitsch aspects of the movement, when really it was about so much more: true independence, total empowerment, bold political statements, reclamation of culture, off the hook fashion, and music with such real and deep soul, which provided the perfect soundtrack to these revolutionary films.
Can You Dig It? does a great job of mixing many amazing ultra obscure tracks some more well known jams, balancing the joy of discovery with the stone cold fact that no matter how many times you hear something from Curtis Mayfield's Superfly it always sounds so damn good. But of course this being Soul Jazz, they dig WAAAAAAY deeper, giving us truly stunning and burning tracks from the likes of Willie Hutch, Martha Reeves, Dennis Coffey, Solomon Burke & Gene Page, Don Julian, Johnny Pate, as well as tracks that somehow slipped under the radar from bigger name folks like James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes.
The sequencing and variety and richness in sound is so compelling and wonderfully varied. So often when this is playing for a while in the store people will ask "Is this still that comp?" and when we say yes they shake their heads in astonishment and usually have to get one right away. In fact right after the amazing Yo La Tengo instore performance last weekend, we put this on and all three members of the band at different times came up to us needing to know what it was and of course they bought one right away. Finally someone has done justice to the music of this movement and era, and our ears are in total heaven!
The double-cd version comes with an out-of-control informative and visually pleasing 100 page book as well as awesome postcards and stickers. The vinyl versions are split into two volumes and while it's awesome to have these songs on vinyl, the bummer is that the vinyl format doesn't come with the amazing 100 page booklet...
MPEG Stream: WILLIE HUTCH "Brother's Gonna Work It Out"
MPEG Stream: MARVIN GAYE "T Plays It Cool"
MPEG Stream: DENNIS COFFEY "Black Belt Jones"

V/A Can You Dig It? The Music And Politics Of Black Action Films - Volume 2 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
Yes, we can dig it! Soul Jazz hits the jackpot once again with this completely amazing collection of songs from Blaxploitation films during the golden era of 1968-1975. There are a million reasons why this collection is so fucking great. But one critical way, in which this comp has become a defining collection of the sound and culture, is that most collections of Blaxploitation music up to this point only really focused on the camp and kitsch aspects of the movement, when really it was about so much more: true independence, total empowerment, bold political statements, reclamation of culture, off the hook fashion, and music with such real and deep soul, which provided the perfect soundtrack to these revolutionary films.
Can You Dig It? does a great job of mixing many amazing ultra obscure tracks some more well known jams, balancing the joy of discovery with the stone cold fact that no matter how many times you hear something from Curtis Mayfield's Superfly it always sounds so damn good. But of course this being Soul Jazz, they dig WAAAAAAY deeper, giving us truly stunning and burning tracks from the likes of Willie Hutch, Martha Reeves, Dennis Coffey, Solomon Burke & Gene Page, Don Julian, Johnny Pate, as well as tracks that somehow slipped under the radar from bigger name folks like James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes.
The sequencing and variety and richness in sound is so compelling and wonderfully varied. So often when this is playing for a while in the store people will ask "Is this still that comp?" and when we say yes they shake their heads in astonishment and usually have to get one right away. In fact right after the amazing Yo La Tengo instore performance last weekend, we put this on and all three members of the band at different times came up to us needing to know what it was and of course they bought one right away. Finally someone has done justice to the music of this movement and era, and our ears are in total heaven!
The double-cd version comes with an out-of-control informative and visually pleasing 100 page book as well as awesome postcards and stickers. The vinyl versions are split into two volumes and while it's awesome to have these songs on vinyl, the bummer is that the vinyl format doesn't come with the amazing 100 page booklet...
MPEG Stream: JAMES BROWN "Make It Good To Yourself"
MPEG Stream: GORDEN STAPLES "Strung Out"
MPEG Stream: EDWIN STARR "Easin' In"

V/A Frisco Freakout I (10-11-08) (self released) cassette 5.00
The annual all-day Frisco Freakout psychedelic festival has happened on two occasions so far, most recently earlier this month and also back in October of '08. Perhaps you were there! You shoulda been, it was a great show, both years. Co-sponsored by KUSF radio, Arthur Magazine, and yours truly Aquarius Records, and organized in part by Ripley from Wooden Shjips, the Frisco Freakout benefits Creativity Explored, a worthy cause right here in the Mission, where developmentally challenged adults get to express themselves artistically (and make amazing art they do!).
This year at the festival, there was a limited edition compilation cassette for sale featuring a selection of live performances recorded at the first Freakout. We scored a few copies - and are selling 'em for what we paid for 'em, $5 each, all of which goes to Creativity Explored. They only made 100 tapes and we of course just have a handful, when they're gone they're gone, so first come first served, and sorry if you don't get one.
There's songs here from Crystal Antlers, Art Lessing, Wooden Shjips, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Ascended Master, The Bad Trips, Greg Ashley, Sequin Trails, and Earthless (who's track is an excerpt 'cause of course an entire Earthless jam would have probably filled a whole side of this tape!).

V/A Kompakt Total 10 (Kompakt) 3lp 24.00
NOW ON VINYL! Another killer collection of Kompakt techno, and while we may tend to lean toward the Pop Ambient side of the Kompakt roster, no label has done more to wear down our resistance to techno than the mighty Kompakt, so much so, that we now find ourselves looking forward to these Total comps nearly as much as the Pop Ambient comps.
And once again, Kompakt comes through with, a killer collection of artists, and tracks, expertly sequenced into over two hours of minimal techno bliss.
Just have a look at the names and you'll know what you're in for: Dj Koze, Justus Kohncke, Gui Boratto, Matias Aguayo, The Field, Burger/Voigt, Reinhard Voigt, Jurgen Paape and loads more, and along with the usal tight clipped, late night dancefloor grooves there are plenty of surprises. How about DJ Koze's "40 Love", with a rhythm track built around the sounds of a tennis match, including the crowds disappointed "Awwwww"s when someone misses a shot, birds chirping, squeaking shoes, grunts, all woven into a woozy bit of warm throb and skitter. Then there's Coma's awesomely murky midnight pusle and shimmer, and Jonas Bering's super fuzzed out synth jam that definitely reminds us of Justice or Daft Punk, and Matias Aguayo's sunshiney techno pop jam, that almost sounds like Phoenix or something, the warped and tweaked tropical wooziness of the Pachanga Boys and the circusy soundtrack weirdness of Jurgen Paape's oompah jam "Ofterschwang", and in between, plenty of that classic Kompakt sound that we can never seem to get enough of.
If you've got 1-9, you obviously need 10, and if you've yet to dip your toes into the Kompakt pool, this is as good a place to start as any...
MPEG Stream: JONAS BERING "Who Is Who"
MPEG Stream: DJ KOZE "40 Love"
MPEG Stream: ADA "Lovestoned"
MPEG Stream: SAM TAYLOR-WOOD "I'm In Love With A German Film Star (Gui Boratto Mix)"

V/A Mortika - Recordings From A Greek Underworld (Mississippi) 2lp box 22.00
Just when you think Mississippi Records releases can't get any cooler, along comes this deluxe 2lp boxset of Greek underground folk music, often referred to as Rembetika. What's Rembetika you may ask? Well, here's our description from a long out of print Rembetika cd collection:
Rembetika music developed early in the 20th century amongst the poor habitants of Greece. Much like the American blues, these marginalized members of Greek society wrote songs about pain, death, prison (many of the rembetika musicians of this time were jailed merely for playing their music), drugs (the word "rembetika" is derived from "tekes", meaning hash den), sorrow, etc. Comparisons have even been drawn to Harlem of the same period. The music is centered around the bouzouki, a home grown lute invented by rembetika musicians, but can include baglama (a smaller bouzouki), santouri (dulcimer), lyra (or violin), guitar, oud, clarinet and vocals of course. One of the things that made their music so rich was the absorption of musical influences from around the Mediterranean. Two tragic events, both in 1922, helped add to this melange: a fire that consumed the city of Smyrna on the coast of Asia Minor forced the Greek inhabitants back to mainland Greece and the Greco-Turkish war, which caused massive shifting of populations. Both events saw a new influx of poor immigrants who added their distinctive styles and melodies to the form. By 1937 the Greek government, viewing the anti-authoritarian and Arab influenced sounds as a cultural and political threat, banned the music from being played on the radio, favoring instead the more mainstream Piraeus style of rembetika.
These two lps contain an incredible selection of sounds from this important movement in Greek folk music, some of the songs are intricate and dramatic, others simple and stripped down, others festive and jubilant, the sound is a twangy gypsy folk, lilting and haunting and lyrical, the vocals are deep and crooned typically, but can slip into something much more keening, or even operatic, the music too is quite varied, often skeletal and spare, but can get quite intense and complex, but always melodic and quite beautiful and emotional.
The two lps come housed in a printed box, and includes a bit booklet filled with photos, lyrics, as well as a history of the music and the musicians. So cool!!

V/A The Roots Of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru (Barbes) cd 15.98
Last year we freaked out about an awesome reissue of Chicha jams by the legendary Peruvian group Juaneco Y Su Combo. So we were beyond thrilled to discover this collection featuring the best of the sounds of Chicha that came bursting out of Peru from the late '60s to the late '70s. Juaneco Y Su Combo are featured here of course, with a few tracks from that disc we love, but what's amazing is that lots of the other groups are just as good, if not even better, and that's saying a whole lot!
It's such an irresistible sound, infused with elements of Andean melodies, Cuban gujiras and plenty of surfy and psychedelic rock tinges. The songs here are filled with so much mood and spirit and will definitely appeal to such a wide range of music lovers, from those who dig weird and wonderful world music a la Sublime Frequencies, to those who dig the more classic psych pop sounds of the Nuggets compilations. These are songs that sizzle and crackle with so much flavor. We could also see rare groove folks getting super excited about some of these sounds and we wouldn't be surprised if samples of them made their way onto some Madlib record in the future.
This actually came out -before- that great Juaneco Su Combo disc so if you loved that one, you gotta make sure to grab this one too, so you can get turned on to other Chicha greats like Los Mirlos, Las Hijos Del Sol, and Los Destellos (who do a Beethoven track in amazing chicha fashion!).
It's always so awesome to blast this in the store, everyone starts tapping their feet and all frowns turn upside down as it's pretty near impossible to be dour or stoic while these songs are playing, and radiating so much colorful fun. So damn good!
MPEG Stream: LOS MIRLOS "Sonido Amazonico"
MPEG Stream: JUANECO Y SU COMBO "Vacilando con Ayahuesca"
MPEG Stream: LAS HIJAS DEL SOL "Linda Muñequita"

V/A Ze 30: Records Story 1979-2009 (Strut) cd 15.98
The seminal New York label at the forefront of the collision between disco and punk turns 30 this year, and the Strut label has compiled a great compilation to celebrate. Strut has already dipped into the vast Ze records catalog for their Disco Not Disco series of compilations and with the Ze reissues of the Mutant Disco and N.Y. No Wave comps, Strut can be forgiven for not making a "Best of" collection. Instead Strut focusses on some of the labels not so well known gems. Tracks by label underdogs Michael Dracula, Casino Music, Garcons and Sympho State are mixed with obscurities by label mainstays, Christina, Lizzie Mercier Descloux, Kid Creole, Suicide, and James Chance and The Contortions (not doing "Contort Yourself" for a change!) among others. A fine compilation for freaky left-field disco connoisseurs! Happy Birthday Ze!!!
MPEG Stream: WAS (NOT WAS) "Tell Me What I'm Dreaming"
MPEG Stream: CHRISTINA "Things Fall Apart"
MPEG Stream: LIZZIE MERCIER DESCLOUX "Hard-Boiled Babe"
MPEG Stream: SUICIDE "Dream Baby Dream (Long Version)"

WARPAINT Exquisite Corpse (Manimal Vinyl) cd ep 14.98
Maybe best known for counting actress Shannon Sossamon as a member, Warpaint managed to downplay any sort of celebrity hype and create a brooding doomic chunk of gloomy murky indie rock loveliness. Equal parts shimmery shoegaze, mumbly slowcore, and soft focus noiserock, the band slip easily from hushed whispery jangle to full on psychedelic freakout to classic fuzzy sixties pop. These six songs are super varied, but do manage to sound perfect together. "Stars" is all Mazzy Star meets Blonde Redhead, glimmering, moody and minor key, the vocal harmonies so lush and angelic, the music perfectly warm and lugubrious. "Elephants" features weirdly processed vocals, over heavy drumming, chiming guitars, lots of reverb and delay, and gets all Sonic Youthy part way through.
"Billie Holiday" might be the best track on the record, so warm and druggy and dreamy, with sixties girl group vox, muted guitars, droning synth/strings, and a killer main hook. Although "Krimson" might be a contender too, with it's looped sounding main melody, throbbing bass, and super emotive vocals, the sound is very early nineties indie rock, but manages to sound all modern at the same time, and so so good. A super fantastic ep for sure. Surprised Warpaint aren't way more popular than they are. Could be because this was originally self released in a super limited run, and is only now getting reissued, so odds are, a record this cool won't stay a secret for long....
MPEG Stream: "Billie Holiday"
MPEG Stream: "Beetles"
MPEG Stream: "Krimson"

WASIF, IMAAD Voidist (Tee Pee) cd 14.98
Imaad Wasif, formerly of lowercase, the Folk Implosion, Alaska! and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, struck gold with his last record Strange Hexes, a gorgeous record of moody, melancholy, emotional post rock, verging on classic rock, with a little twang, a little of that Woven Hand / 16 Horsepower sort of apocalyptic folk, all woven into perfect songs, some rocking, some drifty and balladic, his voice powerful yet delicate, the arrangements simple and elegant, the songs so so catchy.
This is the second 'solo' record from Wasif, and features a whole bunch of killer guests, Bobb Bruno (Polar Goldie Cats, Goliath Bird Eater), who played on the first record, Dale Crover from the Melvins, and a bunch of other folks. If anything, Voidist is more polished and less rocking than Strange Hexes, some might call it mature, but it just seems like an amazing rock record. The production is lush, the songs are dark, but emotional and still catchy, and the sound is not super underground at all, this is the sort of record we would expect to hear all over the radio, there's a little Muse-like Bombast, some dramatic crooning a la Rufus Wainwright, some Death Cab like pop jangle, a bit of twang, seems like folks into Bright Eyes and that sort of dark emotional indie pop stuff would go nuts for this. But stick around, Voidist has a surprise up its sleeve. Hang out for the last song, a serious rocker that sounds like later era Cave In with super distorted heavy riffing, big drums and soaring dramatic vocals. In fact quite a bit of this record sounds like Cave In circa their Raidohead phase, which is not a bad thing AT ALL. That last track is the only really truly heavy track on the disc, but it serves as a good balance for the rest of the record's warm washed out drift and twang flecked post rock. And like the last one, we find ourselves liking this more and more with every listen.
MPEG Stream: "Redeemer"
MPEG Stream: "Priestess"
MPEG Stream: "Razorlike"

WHITE RAINBOW New Clouds (Kranky) cd 14.98
Whoo hoo! Kranky cranks out another colorful psychedelic dose of nu new age dream-hop from Portland's Adam Forkner, aka White Rainbow.  Considering Mr. Forkner has been at the forefront of the pysch-pop new agey dream drone thing for awhile now, its no wonder he's perfected his trance dance, acid bathed tribal ambient shtick into a polished slab of catchy tunes, that fit somewhere between Cluster, Cocteau Twins and the golden gate park drum circle. Wavering angelic vocals soar across space and time, trails of colors fall to the ground as sprawling nebulous rhythms come in one ear and out the other. Definitely one of those records where listening on headphones uncovers all kinds of details and special secrets. Dreamy, fuzzed-out rainbow riffs gazing over pitter-patter percussion and waves of ambient wash, the doors of infinity are open, are your chakras aligned??
Where past White Rainbow releases might have been more guitar and vocal driven, New Clouds seems to offer much more awesome synthesizer wizardry, which we dig. But compared to Prism of Eternal Now, it seems New Clouds offers less variation and is more one dimensional, maintaining a steady sonic thickness that may be very satisfying to some, but a bit monotonous for others. Any way you look at it, New Clouds is a fantastic edition to the Kranky catalogue and a perfect soundtrack for your next out of body experience!
MPEG Stream: "Major Spillage"
MPEG Stream: "All The Boogies In The World"

WHITE RAINBOW New Clouds (Kranky) 2lp 17.98
Whoo hoo! Kranky cranks out another colorful psychedelic dose of nu new age dream-hop from Portland's Adam Forkner, aka White Rainbow.  Considering Mr. Forkner has been at the forefront of the pysch-pop new agey dream drone thing for awhile now, its no wonder he's perfected his trance dance, acid bathed tribal ambient shtick into a polished slab of catchy tunes, that fit somewhere between Cluster, Cocteau Twins and the golden gate park drum circle. Wavering angelic vocals soar across space and time, trails of colors fall to the ground as sprawling nebulous rhythms come in one ear and out the other. Definitely one of those records where listening on headphones uncovers all kinds of details and special secrets. Dreamy, fuzzed-out rainbow riffs gazing over pitter-patter percussion and waves of ambient wash, the doors of infinity are open, are your chakras aligned??
Where past White Rainbow releases might have been more guitar and vocal driven, New Clouds seems to offer much more awesome synthesizer wizardry, which we dig. But compared to Prism of Eternal Now, it seems New Clouds offers less variation and is more one dimensional, maintaining a steady sonic thickness that may be very satisfying to some, but a bit monotonous for others. Any way you look at it, New Clouds is a fantastic edition to the Kranky catalogue and a perfect soundtrack for your next out of body experience!
MPEG Stream: "Major Spillage"
MPEG Stream: "All The Boogies In The World"

YOGA Megafauna (Holy Mountain) lp 14.98
Now this recent Record Of The Week is also available on vinyl!!!
We went a little nuts for the skewed not-quite-black-metal of the oddly monickered Yoga, whose split with Ghast we reviewed a while back. Their sound not really buzzy and brutal as much as warped and twisted and blackened, more like a blurry shadow of black metal, the murky muddy underbelly of a sound more traditionally buzzy and black. Or as someone here opined, it's not black metal, but it wouldn't exist without black metal.
We'd been anxiously awaiting more, having played that split to DEATH, this full length definitely one of our most anticipated records of the year, and an inevitable Record Of The Week. The band do not disappoint. Once again, exploring all manner of spaced out otherworldliness, the blackness more implied, the buzz doused in druggy FX and wrapped around twisted streaks of fragmented pop and sprawling deconstructed dronemuisc. The core of the sound a sort of blissed out, uneasy, lo-fi dronescape, infused with fragmented riffage, pounding drum detritus, and super effected howling vox. There are definitely moments on Megafauna where Yoga begin to resemble an actual and proper metal band, but even then the sound is ragged and off kilter, effects swooping and swirling, the repetitive buzz becoming mantra like, the various strands of melody unraveling before your ears, like a live, metal, Disintegration Loop, with sounds crumbling and falling to pieces, the sound of dissolution and destruction rendered in abstract sound.
Imagine Tim Hecker or Philip Jeck, filtered through a grim black bedroom black metal aesthetic. Or better yet, Jeck in full corpse paint, hunkered over a row of black turntables, candles guttering in the evening breeze, lit from below like some hellish visage, the sounds emanating from his warped vinyl manipulations, being these: fuzzy, gauzy smears of indistinct shimmer and ghostly shadow, haunted music box missives, grim buzzscapes underpinned by heaving swells of crumbling blackness, abstruse sonic alchemy begetting bursts of almost orchestral crush, as well as long stretches of fun house mirror hum and whir, all gathered into a loose songsuite that oozes and drifts, interrupted only by the occasional squall of buzzing metal pound, either looped and frenzied sounding, or lurching and doom-ic, the drums a murky plod, the guitar slippery and shimmery, the riffs melty and viscous, the arrangements endless and lysergic, the sound washed out and shoegazey, a sort of hybridized black metal space rock trip out, that may lumber or blast or crunch, but always eventually slips back into a sound more abstract and metaphysical, psychedelic and darkly dreamy. Yeah!
MPEG Stream: "Seventh Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Flying Witch"
MPEG Stream: "Encante"
MPEG Stream: "Wagion"

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ATLAS SOUND Logos (Kranky) cd 14.98
With this new Atlas Sound release, it's getting harder to distinguish the dividing line between this project and Bradford Cox's main band, Deerhunter. With Atlas Sound's debut, it was obvious that the project was designed to be a more experimental testing ground for more introspective ideas that wouldn't fly so easily in Deerhunter. But after Deerhunter's epic double release last year and follow-up ep this year, expecting a big sway in a different direction from Atlas Sound is perhaps too much to expect. Not that there aren't good songs here, but we wish he pushed the experimental side further instead of keeping the songs in their signature hazy structures. The farthest out and best songs here are where he collaborates with Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) and Laetitia Sadier from Stereolab, though they sound more like great Panda Bear and Stereolab tracks than Atlas Sound songs. Overall, not a bad release, just not what we were hoping for.
MPEG Stream: "Walkabout (with Noah Lennox)"
MPEG Stream: "Sheila"
MPEG Stream: "Quick Canal (with Laetetia Sadier)"

ATLAS SOUND Logos (Kranky) lp 13.98
With this new Atlas Sound release, it's getting harder to distinguish the dividing line between this project and Bradford Cox's main band, Deerhunter. With Atlas Sound's debut, it was obvious that the project was designed to be a more experimental testing ground for more introspective ideas that wouldn't fly so easily in Deerhunter. But after Deerhunter's epic double release last year and follow-up ep this year, expecting a big sway in a different direction from Atlas Sound is perhaps too much to expect. Not that there aren't good songs here, but we wish he pushed the experimental side further instead of keeping the songs in their signature hazy structures. The farthest out and best songs here are where he collaborates with Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) and Laetitia Sadier from Stereolab, though they sound more like great Panda Bear and Stereolab tracks than Atlas Sound songs. Overall, not a bad release, just not what we were hoping for.
MPEG Stream: "Walkabout (with Noah Lennox)"
MPEG Stream: "Sheila"
MPEG Stream: "Quick Canal (with Laetetia Sadier)"

BIBLE OF THE DEVIL / BLADE OF THE RIPPER split (Scarey Records) 7" 5.98
Chicago's formation Flying V pilots Bible Of The Devil fight in the skies on this split 7" with another band of metal maniacs, Louisville's Blade Of The Ripper (featuring one of the dudes from Nashville Pussy and The Hookers, letting his Venom fandom come to the fore). The 33 rpm Side A is BOTD's "Hot Deth", and it harks back a bit to their more Hellacopters-ish garagey rawk early stylings while staying as metal as their spelling of "deth" would suggest. On the flip (which is supposed to spin at 45, 'cause they're fucking with you or something), BOTR offer up "Cast Me In The Fire", maybe even more vicious and raw and metallically evil than the A-side, though you do have the option of speeding "Hot Deth" up to 45 if you want to hear something faster (and more ridiculous), to which "Cast Me In The Fire" can't respond unless you've got a turntable that plays at 78 too. We're big BOTD fans already, but this makes us want to check out more BOTR also. Limited edition, Italian import, we have but a fistful.

BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB Presents The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre (Lo Recordings) lp 22.00
Now On Vinyl!!!!
Lo previously brought us the most excellent, very much of the retro moment Black Devil Disco Club disc entitled 28 After, which was (supposedly) an archival document of the late '70s Parisian answer to Italo-Disco and Giorgio Moroder. We say supposedly 'cause the whole BDDC thing is intentionally shrouded in mystery, and it's been postulated that the contents of that disc are probably partly old and partly new. It's conclusively the case, though, that the man behind BDDC, one Bernard Fevre, WAS indeed active making music in the '70s. And now under the BDDC name, Lo has re-released Fevre's 1975 "library music" album, The Strange World Of Bernard Fevre. Sort of, that is. Being BDDC, things aren't that straightforward. First off, note that this cd is titled The Strange NEW World of Bernard Fevre, and features obviously all-new cover art. Furthermore, some research reveals that 7 of the 14 tracks on here appeared on the authentic, original LP, but 7 didn't... likewise, an equal number of tracks from the 1975 record don't show up on this disc (we're disappointed not to get to hear the likes of "Hell Ride" ferinstance). But not THAT disappointed, since what we have here, whenever and wherever it's from, is pretty neat!!
Super groovy and super moody, these rhythmic instrumentals are laced with sinister synth, driven by tick-tock drum machines and thick bass lines. Eerie Goblin-y atmospheres meet the icy electro robotics of Kraftwerk. Or imagine John Carpenter gone disco. With plenty of entrancing, elegant melody to make this a good at home in the evening listen.
Regardless of whether all these tracks were composed/recorded at the same time (the ones not from the original Strange World Of Bernard Fevre could be outtakes from that LP, or other unreleased material from the era, OR they could have been produced on vintage analog equipment just yesterday, we don't know, and for that matter we're not really sure if everything has been remixed or rerecorded recently), they certainly all SOUND like they all belong together. Anyone into minimal wave, or Italo-disco, or that "So Young But So Cold" comp of French synthwerks circa '77-'82, that sort of thing, should find themselves getting all tingly over this. Furthermore, if the slinky tempos were sped up just a bit, and you did some choppy edits and/or dropped in some glitchery, you'd practically have skweee!
MPEG Stream: "Dali"
MPEG Stream: "Dangerous Mixture"
MPEG Stream: "Pendulum"

DO MAKE SAY THINK Other Truths (Constellation) cd 16.98
On their latest release, Canadian post-rockers Do Make Say Think deliver four splendid instrumentals that differ starkly in mood and atmosphere, and that follow a defined dynamic arc. The first kicks things off with a driving tempo, and a somewhat more gritty-raw approach than on their last album 2007's You, You're A History In Rust. It brings to mind the old school Chicago post-rock from the '90s. The second draws the listener in with a comparatively subdued chant and lulling rhythm that eventually is swept up and away into the stormy dramatics we've come to know and love from this band and their Montreal comrades. The third continues along in that vein, and the fourth brings the 43 minutes to a sunset gazing, drowsy close with lanky sliding guitar lines and hushed brush-on-snare drumming. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Do"
MPEG Stream: "Think"

DO MAKE SAY THINK Other Truths (Constellation) lp 25.00
On their latest release, Canadian post-rockers Do Make Say Think deliver four splendid instrumentals that differ starkly in mood and atmosphere, and that follow a defined dynamic arc. The first kicks things off with a driving tempo, and a somewhat more gritty-raw approach than on their last album 2007's You, You're A History In Rust. It brings to mind the old school Chicago post-rock from the '90s. The second draws the listener in with a comparatively subdued chant and lulling rhythm that eventually is swept up and away into the stormy dramatics we've come to know and love from this band and their Montreal comrades. The third continues along in that vein, and the fourth brings the 43 minutes to a sunset gazing, drowsy close with lanky sliding guitar lines and hushed brush-on-snare drumming. Nice.

HUSH ARBORS Yankee Reality (Ecstatic Peace) cd 10.98
On their second outing as a fully realized band (as distinguished from Keith Wood's solo foresty folk experimentalism of their earlier Digitalis releases), Hush Arbors are quickly becoming the band to watch! Produced by J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., their combination of bucolic psych-rock and strong rootsy songs tread a similar path to many of the bands currently on the Sub Pop roster but thankfully avoid all the sensitive dude pitfalls many of those bands suffer. Mascis's presence is definitely felt in the shoegazey guitar work of the final track, "Devil Made You High" but it's Wood's strong falsetto delivery that moves the songs into all the right places. Like a more driving Six Organs, Yankee Reality is just as satisfying as their last self-titled release for Ecstatic Peace. Keep 'em coming!
MPEG Stream: "Day Before"
MPEG Stream: "Fast Asleep"
MPEG Stream: "Devil Made You High"

IRON MONKEY Iron Monkey / Our Problem (Earache) 2cd 15.98
First two records by these UK sludgelords, conveniently bundled together in this bargain priced two-for-one double jewel case slipcover'd box. Crushing shrieking slow motion psychedelic tarpit doom sludge filth, the British answer to the likes of Eyehategod, Bongzilla, Cavity, Grief, etc... which as you might imagine, means MASSIVE riffs, pummeling drum damage, sick throat-shredding vox, and tempos hovering right around glacial, or perhaps funereal, although the band do lock into some serious grooves, albeit seemingly in slow motion, and of course everything is doused in heaping doses of crumbing distortion and dense blackened grit. Killer!
Features members, past and present, of Electric Wizard, Teeth Of The Lions Rule The Divine, Crippled Black Phoenix, Cerebral Fix, Acrimony and more...

JONSI & ALEX Riceboy Sleeps (XL) 2lp 25.00
NOW AVAILABLE AS A SUPER DELUXE DOUBLE LP!!!
Golly, doesn't this album absolutely scream "Iceland"? Albeit in the most hushed fashion. Not a bad thing in our books by any means! Very apropos, of course! Jonsi & Alex aka Jon Por Birgisson and Alex Somers are indeed a duo from Reykjavik, Iceland. The cover artwork for their debut album is a deadringer for any release from Mum or Sigur Ros. Go figure as Jonsi is in fact the singer of Sigur Ros! The muted dark tones shroud blurry mysterious figures like snapshots from a dream. As well, their music has both a familiar sighing wistfulness and expansive grandeur to it. The first track "Happiness" follows a three note melody drawn out on bowed strings in a slowly swelling cycle. It's deceptively powerful in its seeming simplicity, and quite capable of stirring up bittersweet aches from days long past. Riceboy Sleeps is graced with strings by Amiina and choral accompaniment by Kopavogsdottur. And really, the album is just as much theirs as it is Jonsi & Alex. Their performances are breathtaking! Other highlights: "Indian Summer", "All The Big Trees" and "Daniell In The Sea". Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Happiness"
MPEG Stream: "Indian Summer"

MOUNTAIN GOATS, THE Life Of The World To Come (black vinyl) (4AD) 2lp 17.98
Purple vinyl all gone... but we still do have black vinyl of this!
Sometimes it really is strange to contrast the Mountain Goats of today with the Mountain Goats of old. It's not really that strange for bands to develop and grow, to explore and expand their sonic palette, but for YEARS, the Mountain Goats WAS John Darnielle, a super aggressively strummed acoustic guitar, and his nasally whine, belted out at full volume, but it wasn't that simple, the songs, as bare bones as they may have appeared on the surface, were incredible, catchy and deep, melodic and super rocking (for an acoustic guitars), and the lyrics, by turns clever and bitter and funny and literate, all still totally punk rock, recorded on boomboxes, released on lo-fi mainstay Shrimper. Never in a million years would we have expected Darnielle and his Mountain Goats to end up on 4AD, nor would we have imagined the sound of the Mountain Goats could change so dramatically. But it did, and we've made our peace with it, those lo-fi days are long gone, which in some ways, makes us a little sad, but we would never have glimpsed this other side of Darnielle, which would have been a damn shame, as he's proven himself to be quite a songwriter and arranger, the NEW Mountain Goats, a whole new proposition, still with brief glimpses of the MG's of old, but for the most part, a proper band, sometimes rocking, other times brooding, always a little dark, the lyrics still awesome, so much so you sometimes wonder how Darnielle became a musician and not a writer, but the combination of super literate lyrics and more traditional rock arrangements still hits the spot.
Life Of The World To Come is a dark record, even by MG's standards, every track named for a verse of the Bible, although the lyrical content is not explicitly connected to said verses, at least not on the surface. The sound is lovely, lush and moody and dark and a bit mournful, the opening track is hushed and intimate, Darnielle's vocals restrained, the guitars muted, muffled percussion, everything murky and mysterious. The second track is much more 'rocking', with Darnielle slipping into his old vocal style, which is a good match for the chugging riffs, and pounding drums.
The record explores lots of stylistic territory, but the finest moments (much of the record in fact) find Darnielle abandoning the guitar for piano, the dark chords ominous and lush, backed by strings sometimes, getting a little chamber, which sounds fantastic, it's deeply moving, haunting and emotional. A couple of the more rocking numbers are a bit lite, and sound a tad mainstream, but invariably, they lead right back to something much darker, and ominously lovely.
Available both on cd and super deluxe double black vinyl. There were some purple copies, but those colored vinyl versions are long gone... plus black vinyl does sound better anyway!
MPEG Stream: "1 Samuel 15:23"
MPEG Stream: "Psalms 40:2"
MPEG Stream: "Genesis 3:23"
MPEG Stream: "Ezekiel 7 And The Permanent Efficacy Of Grace"

MV & EE Barn Nova (Ecstatic Peace) cd 10.98
So here's another psychedelic offering of mountain time, roots raga for the true trippers. Only this time the duo have turned their amps up to 11 and leave the acoustic guitars in the closet. Some of you might even be pleased to know J. Mascis holds down the heavy driving rhythm section on drums!! The east coastin' folksters don't veer too far from their past few Ecstatic Peace records, although Barn Nova does seem louder, bigger and more on the electrified country tip. Perhaps with the addition of Mr. Mascis the duo have crafted a more driving and more post-rock sound. "Wandering Nomad" is a perfect example of this more driving, pastoral hugeness, giant chords rip through the country air, vocal harmonies peer through the enveloping reverb, wailing guitar solos beam overhead. We can even catch some glimpses of some dissonant, Sonic Youth type jam outs, wailing feedback and chaos blistering into the red, so unlike anything else we've heard from these cats. So if you're even wondering whether buying another MV and EE album is a good idea, take our word for it and just do it for the Mascis.
MPEG Stream: "Feelin' Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Get Right Church"

NICHOLAS, PAX & THE NETTEY FAMILY Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef (Daptone Records) lp 16.98
Now here on vinyl! A highly obscure Afro-beat document from the seventies, this is a little heard recording by Fela Kuti sideman, Nicholas Addo Nettey. Recorded in Lagos at the same Ginger Baker-run studio that Kuti cut many of his famous albums, this feels like a rawer more stripped down Fela Kuti album just without Fela Kuti, with more chicken scratch organ than funk horns. Four songs, 2 long-form politically charged call and response hypnotic jams with 2 shorter soul grooving instrumentals. Daptone does quite a service uncovering this beast! No Afro-beat collection should be without it!
MPEG Stream: "Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef"
MPEG Stream: "Na Six Feet"

SPARKLEHORSE + FENNESZ In The Fishtank 15 (Konkurrent) lp 15.98
NOW ON VINYL!!
It seems like such a perfect match up, such a great idea, it's a wonder it didn't happen sooner. The gauzy murky dream folk of Sparklehorse, and the fuzzy pixelated hazescapes of Christian Fennesz, just imagine how great they would sound together, and you'd be right. Sparklehorse records already sound like they were produced by Fennesz, so if anything, this collaboration just pushes the sound even further. Apparently it was Fennesz' idea to get together with Mark Linkous aka Sparklehorse for an In The Fishtank session, a long running series that pairs likeminded musicians, gives them two days in a studio together and releases the result. And we have to say, as much as we love many of the Fishtank releases, this one might just be our favorite yet. And how could it not be, the whole session is a series of washed out melodies and barely there song fragments, of hushed dream pop, and spaced out chamber ambience, of drifting dronescapes and haunting cinematic shimmer.
Because the two conjure up such similar sonics, it's hard really to pick out who's doing what here, but that's not the point, the two meld into one, creating a gorgeous organic whole, softened notes, distant melodies, lush layered mysteries, guitars unwind lazily, Linkous' vocals are plaintive and keening, always on the verge of cracking, made even more poignant as they are suspended in clouds of minor key blur, and squalls of softly pixelated sound. Throw some headphones on, and suddenly it's like looking at this fuzzy ambient pop through a microscope, the vocals are looped and chopped and layered and turned inside out, not audible on the stereo, but up close, a kaleidoscope of colors and textures.
All of those bands who try to do that 'regular old pop made special by adding a little electronic glitch' need to bow down before these masters. Two days together and they're able to create something magical, that yes is a blend of folk and rock and electronics, but it's so much more, every facet is linked to every other, all of the elements are inexorably linked, seeping into the sounds around them, bleeding into each other, it's not just a pop song dipped in some computery glitch, the glitch here and the digital element is subtle and lush and as organic as any of the guitars or voices.
A few of the tracks get noisy and thick and corrosive and almost explosive here and there, but even then, that crunch and buzz is underpinned by swirling melodies, and lush hushed drones.
Such a beautiful beautiful record, hard to believe it was conjured up in only a matter of days. It makes us almost wish these two keep making music together, imagine what they could come up with given a week? A month? A year? Here's hoping...
MPEG Stream: "Music Box Of Snakes"
MPEG Stream: "Goodnight Sweetheart"
MPEG Stream: "If My Heart"

WIRE, THE #309 November 2009 magazine 9.98
Black Sheep's main druid dude, Julian Cope, is cooler than thou in shades and black leather vest on the front cover. Also this ish, good readin' as well about the likes of Peter Walker, OOIOO, Cornelius Cardew, Bernie Krause, Mordant Music, and plenty more, including a scene report from Java, and an "Invisible Jukebox" session with director Jim Jarmusch. Plus all the usual columns and charts and reviews and stuff, of course. Need we say it? If you read our list/website, you should also be reading The Wire.

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V/A Dirty French Psychedelics (Dirty) lp 26.00
NOW ON VINYL!!
From the same great tastemakers who put together the Dirty Space Disco collection that has become an all-time AQ favorite, comes this collection of sultry and sensual French psychedelia. These are the sounds and artists that have influenced folks like Sebastian Tellier, Air, Islaja, Blonde Redhead, Bjork, Broadcast, Komeda, etc.
And while we of course love the peppy sounds of classic French ye-ye pop, it's the more seductive, warped and tripped out sounds from France in the '70s that really gets us going! When we realized that one of our favorite songs of all time, "Il Pleut" by Brigitte Fontaine (complete with arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier!) was included, we knew there was some mighty fine curatorial work going on here.
But it's not just that one track, not even close, this comp has turned us on to amazing sounds from new-to-us folks like Christophe, Nino Ferrer, Jeanne Marie Sens as well as long beloved AQ faves like Dashiell Hedayat, Ilous & Decuyper, and Francois de Roubaix. While many of their US and UK counterparts were injecting large amounts of blues and hard rock into their psychedelia, the French kept it sensual, steamy and tripped out, realizing an alternate yet completely enticing musical universe. Full on sexy psychedelic seduction! Weirdness too, like the awesome track whose grooves are backed with the sounds of revving race cars.
MPEG Stream: BRIGITTE FONTAINE "Il Pleut"
MPEG Stream: CHRISTOPHE "Sunny Road To Salina"
MPEG Stream: JEANNE-MARIE SENS "Tape Tape Tape"

V/A Songs In The Key Of Z: Volume 1 & 2 (Cherry Red) 2cd 16.98
Back in print, both volumes of classic outsider music weirdness as compiled by WFMU's Irwin Chusid, now together in one package as a double cd!
It could be the product of a genetic disaster, alien abduction, drug excess, the lack of proper medication, or nothing easily quantifiable. Regardless of the cause, outsider art is dominated by a artistic compulsion / obsession so strong as to defy any lack of training or ability or good sense. Irwin Chusid's compilation Songs In The Key Of Z (Vol. 1) is a absurdist journey into the obtuse songwriting from The Shaggs, Daniel Johnston, Wesley Willis, Joe Meek (whose legendary tone-deafness couldn't be more self-evident as on the demo to "Telstar"), Captain Beefheart, Shooby Taylor, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Tiny Tim, Luie Luie, Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson, the ever lovable Jandek, and many more. Funny how so many of those names seem so well-known now!
Digging further into the vaults of what he aptly describes as "ear-tingling outrephonics", Chusid also managed a second volume in the Key Of Z. Vibrant, electrifying, and yes often bizarre feats of sonic tunesmanship are contained within each of Volume 2's seventeen tracks. You probably have some idea of what to expect with this second compilation, but what's impossible to anticipate is the diversity of this unheard, absolutely earnest and untethered music. An acquired taste? Yes... many actually, but very rewardingly so. Andee took a particular liking to Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend's "You're Out Of The Computer", while all of our ears were left a-tingling by the sounds of Shooby Taylor and The Space Lady. Who else will you hear? Former SF local Thoth, Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson Parker, Dick Kent, B.J. Snowden, Luie Luie, and many more. Please consider yourself forewarned: some may make you giggle, some may make you uncomfortable, some may make you cringe. Others may be uplifting, inspiring or disturbing. Some may as Alvin Dahn's song simply states "drive [you] mad". While it can certainly be said that Volume One was a hard act to follow, Chusid unearthed and assembled an exceptional selection of perhaps even more obscure oddities on Volume Two, and they're both quite recommended, together on this handy reissue.
MPEG Stream: WESELY WILLIS "Rock'n'Roll McDonalds"
MPEG Stream: JOE MEEK "Telstar (Rough Demo)"
MPEG Stream: CONGRESS-WOMAN MALINDA JACKSON "Cousin Mosquito #1"
MPEG Stream: BINGO GAZINGO & MY ROBOT FRIEND "You're Out Of The Computer"

V/A Thai Beat A Go-Go Volume 1 (Subliminal Sounds) lp 28.00
This all-time AQ favorite is finally available on vinyl!
From the label that brought us Dungen, Parson Sound and Abner Jay comes a crazy collection of Thai Go-Go. We're still reeling from the double whammy of the two volume Cambodian Rocks releases and the excellent Cambodian Cassette Archives and now this. Though to be fair to the latter, this release might not necessarily cater to all the same fans. The music here is more likely to appeal to fans of obscure 60's pop and garage than say, fans of off kilter pop influenced Thai music. In fact, much of what's on this disc would be difficult to place within any particular country, let alone region of the world through listening alone. Apparently the musicians here were first and foremost concerned with reproducing an accurate replica (there are many overt copies included here) of popular American music of the day. This was, after all, during the Vietnam war and plenty of American servicemen were stationed in Thailand and American music was being broadcast far and wide for their benefit. That said, there are still plenty of great rocking vocal and instrumental tracks here and a few nutty renditions of classics. Of note is The Son Of P.M.'s version of the "James Bond Theme", which gets a little spicing up with Thai drums and The Cat's "Meow" or Louise Kennedy's "Poo Yai Lee", either of which would have been an excellent addition to the Ultra Chicks compilations. There's also a version of Hank Williams' "Kaw Liga" with augmented Native American drumming and a super upbeat bridge, and Johnny Guitar's "Klongyao", probably the best representation of Thai-Western pop hybrid on the collection. Definitely stick this one out to the end when you pick it up though, as it seems heavily weighted with the best tracks in the second half.
MPEG Stream: THE VIKING BAND "Phom Rak Khoon Tching Tching"
MPEG Stream: JOHNNY'S GUITAR "Klongyao"
MPEG Stream: PAIBOON "Yom Pha Barn Norn Pahwaa"

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ANTI-POP CONSORTIUM "Fluorescent Black" (Big Dada) cd/2lp 15.98/23.00
BARONESS "Blue Record" (Relapse) 2cd 15.98
BARRACUDA, RANDY "s/t" (Flogsta Dancehall) lp 27.00
CAPTAIN BEYOND "Captain Beyond & Sufficiently Breathless" (Raven) cd 22.00
CARLTON MELTON "Pass It On" (Mid-to-Late Records) lp 14.98
CAVE, NICK & WARREN ELLIS "White Lunar" (Mute) 2cd 16.98
CELAN "Halo" (Exile On Mainstream) cd 14.98
DAM-FUNK "Toeachizown" (Stones Throw) cd 15.98
EARTH AND FIRE "s/t" (Esoteric) cd 23.00
ESPVALL, HELENA & MASAKI BATOH "Overloaded Ark" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/21.00
EVANGELISTA "Prince Of Truth" (Constelation) cd/lp + cd 16.98/25.00
FAIRFIELD, FRANK "s/t" (Tompkins Square) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
FATHER BEFOULDED / HELCARAXE "Ruination Of The Heavenly Communion" (Enuleation) cd 13.98
FENRIZ' RED PLANET / NATTEFROST "Engansgrill" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00
FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS "I Told You I Was Freaky" (Sub Pop) cd/lp 15.98/21.00
FLY GIRLZ, THE "Da' Brats From Da' Ville" (True Panther Sounds) cd/lp 14.98/16.98
FORMER GHOSTS "Fleurs" (Upset! The Rhythm) cd 16.98
GERMAN MEASELS, THE "Wild" (Captured Tracks) 12" 14.98
GODS GIFT "Pathology: Manchester 1979-84" (Messthetics) cd 12.98
KINGS OF CONVENIENCE "Declaration Of Dependence" (Astralwerks) cd 15.98
LANDSCAPE "From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars .... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus" (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
LIMITS OF CONTROL "OST" (Lakeshore Records) cd 17.98
MARK, CAROLYN & N.Q. ARBUCKLE "Let's Just Stay Here" (Mint) cd 14.98
METALUCIFER "Heavy Metal Bulldozer" lp 17.98
MORDANT MUSIC "SyMptoMs (Version)" (Mordant Music) 10" 12.98
MORDANT MUSIC "SyMptoMs" (Mordant Music) cd 17.98
MUDHONEY "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" (Sub Pop) lp 14.98
MUDHONEY "s/t" (Sub Pop) lp 14.98
MUDHONEY "Superfuzz Bigmuff" (Sub Pop) lp 12.98
NATURAL YOGURT BAND "Away With Melancholy" (Jazzman /Now-Again) cd 17.98
NIBLOCK, PHIL "Touch Strings" (Touch) 2cd 19.98
PORT O'BRIEN "Threadbare" (TBD Records) cd 12.98
PYRAMIDS WITH NADJA "s/t" (Hydrahead) cd 17.98
RATTO, MIKA "Polkupyoralla Vuokkopenkereelle" (Ektro) cd 14.98
REYKJAVIK! "The Blood" (Kimi) cd 16.98
RIGAS DEN ANDRE "Guilty Feet No Rhythm" (Flogsta Dancehall) lp 27.00
RYAN, COLLIE "The Rainbow Records" (Bella Terra / Yoga) 3cd 34.00
SECRETS OF THE MOON "Privilegium" (Lupus Lounge) cd 14.98
SHACKELTON "Three EPs" (Perlon) cd 17.98
SPIRAL STAIRS "The Real Feel" (Matador) cd/lp 13.98/16.98
STEVENS, SUFJAN "The BQE" (Asthmatic Kitty) cd 16.98
SYLVIAN, DAVID "Manafon" (Samadhisound) cd 15.98
TIMES, THE "E For Edward / Pure / Et Dieu Crea La Femme" (Artpop!) 2cd 16.98
TRUNK, JONNY "Scrapbook" (Trunk) cd/lp 16.98/17.98
V/A "Bite Harder: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler Volume 2" (De Wolfe Music Library) cd/lp 17.98/17.98
V/A "D-Funk: Funk, Disco & Boogie Grooves From Germany 1972-2002" (Marina) cd 17.98
V/A "Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series" (Wergo) 3cd 53.00
V/A "Ethiopian Soul & Groove: Ethiopian Urban Modern Music Vol. 1" (L'arome Productions) lp/lp 16.98/16.98
V/A "Live At The Smell" (Peanut Baby) dvd 16.98
V/A "More Andergraun Vibrations" (Hundergum) cd 25.00
V/A "Mutant Disco Volume 3: Garage Sale" (Ze) cd 16.98
V/A "Tumbele! Biguine, Afro & Latin Sounds From The French Caribbean, 1963-74" (Sound Way) cd/2lp 16.98/23.00
V/A "Warp 20 (Chosen)" (Warp) 2cd 22.00
V/A "Warp 20 (Recreated)" (Warp) 2cd 25.00
V/A (CROOKERS) "I Love Techno 2009" (Lektro Luv) cd 17.98
VHS HEAD "Video Club" (Skam) cd 9.98
VOIVOD "Infini" (Relapse) cd 14.98
WHITE DENIM "Fits" (Downtown Records) cd 14.98
YE OLDE MAIDS (COLD CAVE) "God Blesses Us, Mother Dresses Us" (Art Fag) lp 17.98
YOUNGS, RICHARD "Under Stellar Stream" (Jagjaguwar) cd/lp 14.98/16.98

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Please place your order via our website.

[1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings!

[2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive.

[ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.


DOMESTIC SHIPPING :
--------------------------------

1-2 items    $5.00 USPS Priority Mail
3+ items    $7.50 UPS Ground

Further Explanation (Please Read!):
Within the USA, an order of 3 or more items will be shipped via UPS ground for a flat fee of $7.50. These packages are automatically insured and trackable.

However, if your package contains just 1 or 2 items, we will ship your order via USPS Priority Mail, and charge you $5.00 for shipping. These packages are NOT insured or trackable, sorry. So if you desire those safeguards, please request UPS delivery at the $7.50 rate. You must mention this in the comments field of our online order form.

Also, please note that UPS will not ship to PO Boxes. If you only have a PO Box, we can ship packages of 3+ items via US Postal Service at the $7.50 rate. Special shipping needs (e.g. UPS Next Day) are also do-able, just ask.

Another important note: box sets DON'T (usually) count as one item. Sorry. A box set will generally bump you up into the "three or more items" category. Y'know, they're big. Boxes.


INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING :
-------------------------------- For foreign customers we ship via US AIRMAIL ("First Class International"). Your price is based on the actual cost of shipping plus $1. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "First Class International". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)

We highly recommend insurance for your international package, but it is very expensive! You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)


INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE :
-------------------------------- You are hereby forewarned that Aquarius is not responsible if your international package gets lost in the mail. Insurance is your only recourse if your records never show up. Since the terrible events of 9/11, mail service has been slow and undependable... and while we haven't experienced any *confirmed* permanently lost mail, insurance might provide some additional piece of mind in this time of upheaval. We strongly recommend it. But yes, it is very expensive. It's your choice. Again: Aquarius is not responsible for lost mail, so if you aren't willing to take a (slight but real) risk, please buy the insurance.

International insurance is very expensive! In fact often the insurance costs more than the value of your package, in which case it obviously does not make sense to insure it. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International", which is the way insured packages are sent. 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)

For example: for a one-pound package worth $18 going to England, shipping without insurance is about $11.00. But with insurance, the shipping / insurance total is over $26.00!

It is your reponsibility to check the international rate calculator in order to determine whether or not you want international insurance. If you tell us you want international insurance, we will add it to your order no matter how much it costs!


PAYMENT :
-------------------------------- We accept the following credit cards: Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. We will not charge your credit card until your order is ready to ship.

Money orders are accepted, but only in $USD. International customers please note that they must be international postal money orders purchased at a post office. Additional processing fees may apply. 

If you wish to pay by money order, you must confirm the order with us through email or phone BEFORE you send any payment. It's best to just use the secure order form on the website, and when checking out mark money order as your payment choice. We will then process your order and respond with all the crucial payment info.

We also accept payment by Paypal. If you opt for this payment method, we will send you a paypal total and payment instructions as soon as we've confirmed your order with you. Please do not send payment until you have received human contact from our mailorder department.

Unfortunately, we cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


QUESTION?
-------------------------------- Email the mailorder department: mailorder@aquariusrecords.org
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SOME SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES

----} October 27th
Devendra Banhardt "What Will We Be" cd on Warner Brothers
Jesu "Opiate Sun" cd ep on Caldo Verde
Gorgoroth "Quantos Possunt Ad Santanitatem Trahunt" cd on Regain
Saviours "Accelerated Living" cd/lp on Tee Pee
Broadcast "Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate" cd/lp on Warp
Cobra Killer "Uppers & Downers" cd
Wolfmother "Cosmic Egg" cd
Tia Carrera "Quintessential" cd on Small Stone
Tegan & Sara "Sainthood" cd on Sire
Tom Fazzini "Neck To Neck" lp on Locust
Jozef Van Wissem "Ex Patris" lp on Important

----} November 3rd
Cold Cave "Love Comes Close" cd/lp reissued via Matador
Falty DL "Bravery" cd/2x12" on Planet Mu
Guided By Voices "Suitcase 3: Up We Go Now" 4cd
King Khan & BBQ Show "Invisible Girl" cd/lp on In The Red
Melt Banana "Lite Live" cd on Azap
Liturgy "Renihilation" lp version on 20 Buck Spin
Themselves "Crowns Down" cd on Anticon
Max Richter "Memory House" cd on Fat Cat
SUNNO))) "Monoliths & Dimensions" 2lp version on Southern Lord
Weezer "Raditude" cd on Geffen
Slayer "World Painted Blood" cd on Sony

----} November 10th
Supersilent "9" cd on Rune Grammofon
Krallice "Dimensional Bleedthrough" cd on Profound Lore
Black To Comm "Alphabet 1968" cd/lp on Type
Pants Yell! "Received Pronunciation" cd/lp on Slumberland
Themselves "Crowns Down" lp on Anticon
DJ/Rupture + Matt Shadetek "Solar Life Raft" cd on Agriculture
Cindytalk "Crackle Of My Soul" cd on Editions Mego
Moebius / Plank "Zero Set" cd reissue on Bureau B

----} November 17th
Real Estate "s/t" cd/lp on Woodsist

----} November 24th
Megasus "s/t" cd on 20 Buck Spin
Worm Ouroboros "s/t" cd on 20 Buck Spin

----} also upcoming sooner or later or sooner or later
Jesu "Opiate Sun" lp on Aural Exploits
Neon Indian "Psychic Chasms" lp version on Lefse
Steel Mammoth "Nuclear Ritual" cd
Cold Cave "Death Comes Close" 12"
Six Finger Satellite "A Good Year For Hardness" cd on Anchor Brain
Shit And Shine "229 2299 Girls Against Shit" lp on Riot Season
Ocean "Pantheon Of The Lesser" 2lp version on Important
Bunkur "Nullify" cd on Displeased
Grumbling Fur (Guapo + Jussi from Circle) cd
Combat Astronomy "Earth Divided by Zero" cd
Rosetta "Wake/Lift" vinyl version
Anton Batagov "Passionate Desire To Be An Angel" cd on Long Arms Records
Japancakes "If I Could See Dallas"
Sean Smith "Eternal" cd on Ultra Hard Gel
Jazzfinger "The Sun's Golden Blood" cd on Beta-Lactam Ring
v/a "Noise Room" cd on Soniq
Country Teasers / Ezee Tiger split lp on Holy Mountain
Erase Errata TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
Xiu Xiu TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists TBA cd/lp on Touch And Go
Rodan TBA cd/lp on Quarterstick
Deftones "Eros" cd on Warner Bros.
Swell Maps "International Rescue" clear vinyl LP reissue on Alive
Black Lips "We Didn't Know..." green vinyl LP on Bomp!
Loss "Despond" cd on Profound Lore
Celestiial "Where Life Springs Eternal" cd on Bindrune
Blood Of The Black Owl "A Banishing Ritual" cd on Bindrune

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew